Star Trek: The Untouchable
by Tommy Mug
Summary: The Enterprise-E is tasked with delivering a controversial prototype weapon to a Borg ship for it's first test but something goes horribly wrong during the mission. The Enterprise must stop the weapon before it destroys the Borg...and the Federation.
1. Prologue

THE NEAR FUTURE…

"Entering the Kalanna System, Sir!" the helm officer stated over the blaring klaxon.

"Full ahead, Lieutenant. Status of the Borg cube Mister Pyn?"

"It's dropping out of warp and maintaining pursuit Sir!"

"We can still contact the _Enterprise_ for assistance Captain!"

"Negative, Commander. We are to maintain communication silence. It would be illogical to abandon our orders on this delicate mission."

"Respectfully Captain, our mission went out the window when we recklessly engaged this cube!"

"You are relieved, Commander."

"What? With the—"

"The Borg are firing Captain!"

"Evasive maneuver Tao Theta Blue."

"Aye aye Sir!"

The ship responded too late and caught the majority of the Borg salvo, shaking the ship as the shields struggled to maintain cohesion under the bombardment.

"Shields at 75% Captain!"

"Helm, bring us about."

"Aye, Sir!"

"Torpedoes are hot, Captain!"

"Fire, full spread."

Several photon torpedoes were launched and detonated across the side of the black and green cube.

"Little effect, Sir!"

Another volley of Borg weapons fire struck the Galaxy-class ship.

"Shields are down to 62%!"

"Maintain speed. Concentrate fire at one-eight-three by zero-two-nine."

Before the weapons were fired, the ship rocked gentler than it previously had during the engagement.

"The Borg are trying to lock onto us with a tractor beam!"

"Hard to port, full speed."

"It's too late, they've locked on! Their cutting beam is draining our shields! Damn! They're down to 49% and dropping fast Captain!"

"Target the tractor emitters on a rotating phaser frequency. Do not allow them time to adapt," the captain calmly replied as he sat as straight as a board in his center chair.

Phaser fire struck the Borg emitters with the precision of a surgeon's blade. After the fifth blast was delivered to the target, there was a small explosion, relative only to the sheer size of the Borg ship.

"Borg tractors are offline," one of the bridge officers stated as the ship quivered with more shockwaves.

"Gravimetric torpedoes, Captain! Shields down to 13%!

"Reroute all available power to reinforce the shields and boost the weapons. Utilize power from life support if you must."

"Yes Sir!"

"Weapons are charged Captain!"

The captain nodded ever so slightly, hardly noticeable at all and ordered, "Fire at will. Adjust course and speed for a strafing run along her bow."

"Aye!"

As the starship closed in, her phaser banks erupted with an onslaught of energy bombardments with intermitted photon torpedo launches. Before it could completely pull away however, the cube was able to land another vicious volley of its own. This time, the impact threw the bridge crew off their feet and away from their stations.

"Damage report, Lieutenant," the captain demanded as he calmly climbed back into his command chair.

"Shields and internal dampeners are offline! Torpedo bay unresponsive! Phaser banks one and two have been destroyed! Hull breach on Deck Two, forcefields in place. Minor casualties reported in Main Engineering, only bumps and bruises, Captain."

"Acknowledged. Bridge to Engineering, gather yourselves and restore our shields, first priority. Helm, execute T'Pol maneuver full impulse."

The ship narrowly avoided yet another bombardment upon executing the maneuver. The bridge crew was indeed scared but they fed on their Vulcan captain's apparent calmness and unattachment to the hopeless battle unfolding. They did their duties well, enough to make even the shrewdest of captains proud. Sparks suddenly exploded at various consoles around the bridge as a particular violent shockwave rippled through the ship's hull, again throwing everyone to the deck along with some of the bulkheads.

The captain weakly crawled back to his chair and noticed his forehead now had a wide gash across it. Gray smoke began clouding the bridge as the environmental system went offline with fires now erupting around the bridge. Peering through the smoke as green blood trickled down his face, he noticed several bodies that now littered his bridge—all dead. He asked for a status report from whoever was still alive. His first officer pulled himself off the deck and limped to Tactical.

"Hull breaches on decks 10 through 16 and Deck 18! Forcefields are not responding! Weapons and shields are offline! Warp drive is not responsive and fatalities are reported throughout the ship! Dammit Captain! I hope your mission was worth it, you paid a hell of a lot for it today!"

"WE ARE THE BORG," the mechanical voice of thousands boomed over the comm, "You will be assimilated into the Collective. YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN. Resistance is futile."

As blood stung his eyes and smoke began burning his lungs, the captain ordered, "Helm, set course for the cube, ramming speed. Cascade all remaining power into the engines."

"Aye Captain!" the officer rasped with a dry and gritty voice.

"Attention all hands, this is the captain, abandon ship. All hands, abandon ship."

"Sir, the comm went down in that last blast, no one got your orders!"

Another relentless series of attacks shook the bridge, killing another sloth of officers including the helm officer whose console finally succumbed to the damage and exploded before he could engage the engines. The captain stumbled towards ops and rerouted helm control to that station. He then heard phaser fire and mechanical movements from behind, concluding that the Borg had transported aboard and what was left of his bridge officers were attempting to cover him. Upon engaging a ramming course, he locked the main computer so that the sequence couldn't be aborted.

Immediately after hearing the first scream behind him, the captain spun around just in time to see a Borg arm extend towards him. He grasped the arm and forced it away from him, calling upon every bit of strength his Vulcan physiology had left in the suffocating, smoke-filled bridge. The captain was about to help his few surviving officers fight off the Borg boarding party when a second drone appeared behind him through the smoke and injected his neck with nanoprobes. The captain collapsed to his knees as the microscopic robots began assimilation. His mental discipline and physical strength were being increasingly drained. Nevertheless, he managed to pull his phaser out, set it to kill and attempted to aim it at himself knowing that if he died, the Borg wouldn't be able to use his vast knowledge and experience against Starfleet. That's all the further he got before the nanoprobes took over entirely and the phaser dropped harmlessly to the deck. It had bounced once before it flew towards the viewscreen as the momentum of the ship jerkily stopped. The collective sound of the general grinding, metallic tearing and bulkhead compression of the two ships' hulls was horrendous and chilling for any humanoid ear, Vulcan or otherwise.


	2. Chapter 1

THE PRESENT ON THE _ENTERPRISE-E_…

_Captain's Log, Stardate 64531.2:_

_Since the battle of Wolf 359 twenty years ago, Starfleet has been attempting to produce weapons that can effectively combat the Borg. Until recently, they've had relatively little success. Based on the fundamental concepts of the Infinity Modulator developed by Seven of Nine, a Borg drone rehabilitated by the _USS Voyager_, Starfleet has created a prototype weapon that if successful, could finally turn the tide of the war against one of the Federation's most mortal enemies, the Borg. While the intimate details of this prototype are greatly unknown except by the highest admiralty in Starfleet, the large consensus of the Federation believes this weapon to be one of mass destruction, one that has the potential to destroy all Borg everywhere. _

_Until this weapon came about, the Federation has long abandoned the idea of genocide but it seems as through now it's become an adopted policy, especially after the travesties of the costly Dominion War that crippled the fleet not too long ago. The weapon's launch has been accompanied with great controversy within the Federation. Vulcan, Earth's oldest ally, has even threatened to resign its membership in the Federation over the matter citing grave lapses in Starfleet's rationality and logic behind the new weapon and its purpose. Regardless of the moral and political implications of such a device, Starfleet has nevertheless pledged to use it against the Borg. _

_Despite my own objections, the _Enterprise_ has been ordered to rendezvous with the _Yamato_ in the Crenab sector to receive the prototype. Admiral Nechayev refused to provide additional details but assured me I would be properly briefed only after the rendezvous when the weapon was secured. I can only assume the _Enterprise_ will then be tasked with delivering the weapon to a designated Borg target shortly thereafter, a mission that will no doubt put this ship at grave risk. _

_We have been authorized to proceed at maximum warp but at the cost of our engines. We have been at high warp for several days now and Commander Won of Engineering has expressed great concern that we're going to tear the ship apart if we don't slow down. I, however, have faith in the _Enterprise, _she's a spry girl indeed; she'll hold together, at least until we make the rendezvous." _

"_Captain, we're entering the Crenab sector_," the female voice chimed with a subtle sense of impatience. Captain Jean-Luc Picard hadn't realized so much time had passed already. He immediately set down his PADD and after tapping his combadge, he replied with a thin smile,

"Understood, Number One, take us out of warp and inform Mister Won he may have his engines back, _for now_."

The cordial smile faded as he stood up and walked across his ready room. He reminisced how many times he had called Will Riker 'Number One' over the years. Riker finally decided to take command of his own ship, the _Titan_, last year leaving the Enterprise with a new first officer, Commander Sharra Bii, a Bajoran straight from the Academy. She graduated the top of her class and even fought for Bajor's freedom during the Cardassian occupations before she joined Starfleet but she still had a lot to learn about life on the _Enterprise_. She was ill tempered, but then again, most Bajoran females were.

Picard entered the bridge and made his way to the captain's chair in the center of the command center of the _Enterprise-E_ with absolute stoicism. He didn't appear fazed but he was still nostalgic for his legendary crew he once commanded and befriended. The insightful Deanna Troi-Riker was transferred to the _Titan_ following her husband. Worf had returned to his duties on Qo'noS serving as the Federation ambassador to the Klingons. Young Wesley Crusher had returned from his journeys with the Traveler and had reenrolled in the Academy. Commander La Forge, the last of his original crew to leave, had recently returned to San Francisco to oversee the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Beverly, Picard's secret love, became the head of Starfleet Medical six months ago and left the _Enterprise_ as her Chief Medical Officer.

Then there was Lieutenant Commander Data.

Picard still grieved from his comrade's sudden death during the incident with the Remans and Shinzon. Over the years, the android grew to be more human than even Picard himself at times. Picard had grown accustomed to Data's curiosity and child-like innocence and now that he was gone, the _Enterprise_ rarely felt like home as it once did. The same feeling was shared for the others—they all had been a family on this ship—but at least they were still alive. Today, his senior officers consisted of newly commissioned officers, just like his first officer. Granted some had served on other vessels after their graduation at the Academy—the new tactical officer was even a Trill that carried hundreds of years of experience in his symbiote ic parasite—but in Picard's eyes, none of them could ever fill the shoes their predecessors left behind.

"Captain," Lieutenant Moor, the Ferengi ops officer barked, interrupting Picard's thoughts, "the _Yamato_ is hailing us."

Dismissing his wandering mind, Picard nodded slightly and gruffed, "On screen, Lieutenant."

Even without magnification, it was easy for Picard to tell the familiar shape and silhouette of the _Yamato_, a Galaxy-class starship, on the backdrop of space. He had commanded a similar ship for several years, the immediate predecessor to the _Enterprise _he now commanded. The viewscreen abruptly transitioned to the bridge of the _Yamato_ and her captain. Picard forced a smile and warmly greeted, "Ah Captain T'Guul. I understand you have some cargo for us."

T'Guul looked far too young to be a captain of a Starfleet vessel, even for a Vulcan. The tall and slender captain raised an eyebrow in surprise—practically an emotional outburst for Vulcans—and flatly replied, "Captain, your understanding appears to be flawed. Your 'cargo,' as you say, is walking to the transporter room now."

Picard ignored the Vulcan's seemingly icy tone and furrowed his brow in confusion. His smile quickly faded by doing so before he stated, "My apologies but my orders were to receive a new weapon Starfleet has commissioned."

"You are correct and you will be receiving the weapon." If it weren't for his lips moving, the image of T'Guul would have appeared to be a still-frame picture. "He will be transported to your ship and will provide you with your mission briefing. _Yamato_ out."

With that, the viewscreen switched to the image of the _Yamato_, which quickly moved into transporter range.

"Well that was rude," Moor mumbled at ops before he spoke up and squawked, "Channel closed, Sir. The _Yamato_ is already moving off. The chief in transporter room three reports transport complete, written confirmation only, Captain."

"Number One, let's see what the devil this is all about," Picard stood up and tugged on his charcoal-colored tunic before he moved towards the turbolift with Commander Sharra following. Picard turned to the Trill officer stationed at Tactical and briskly ordered, "The bridge is yours, Mister Kardaz."

"Oh, aye Sir," came the timid reply.

When the turbolift doors slid closed, Picard blared, "Computer, Deck-six."

As soon as the turbolift started moving, Picard became aware of millions of voices talking as one, the voice of the Borg Collective. Ever since he was rescued from the Borg, he could still occasionally perceive the Borg Collective, if ever so faintly.

"Computer, hold turbolift," he briskly ordered while attempting to focus on the voices to perceive them clearer.

"Captain?" Sharra asked with a concerned look.

Picard was going to contact the bridge and ask if there were any Borg vessels in the sector but the voices abruptly disappeared from his mind, as though they were nothing more than a daydream or memory. He dismissed it as such and resumed the turbolift, never bothering to tell his first officer.

Moments later, Picard and Sharra exited the turbolift and approached the transporter room but before they could walk inside, a large Borg drone stepped into the corridor from the opposite room and moved towards the officers with a determined stride.

"Intruder Alert!" Sharra screamed after tapping her combadge. Immediately, she drew her phaser and added, "Security to transporter room three!" Before she could fire, the drone had already moved in, ripped the phaser out of her hands and then restrained her arms as she attempted to fight the drone hand-to-hand. Her large, Bajoran chain earring seemed to dance below her ear during the struggle as if it was nothing more than a ballet. Picard had moved closer to the drone and attempted to remove critical components to shut it down. His efforts were in vain; he was effortlessly pushed away before he could remove anything. At that moment, a small contingent of security forces appeared further down the corridor and opened fire. The drone's shield had absorbed every shot—it had somehow adapted _before_ the first shot was even fired. Before the officers could remodulate their phasers, the drone quickly spun around to face the security officers and held Sharra in front of him as a human shield while a wrist mounted energy weapon popped up on his free arm. The drone hastily aimed and fired several shots at the security team, which all landed on target, causing them to fall lifelessly.

During the firefight, or lack thereof, Picard had noticed an array of weapons ranging from bladed ones to variants of the phaser rifle attached to the drone's lower back and shoulders. Further inspection wielded that they were in fact, of Federation design yet Picard didn't recognize the models. Regardless of what they were, the Borg would never equip its drones with that sort of technology and they don't use human shields. After his own assimilation years ago, he knew this better than anyone.

The drone turned to face the still-downed Picard and pushed Sharra into him. When they looked back up, several other Borg drones had materialized in the corridor behind the first drone. As if on parade, they marched towards the downed officers as their optical lasers swayed erratically.

"We are the Borg," the mob of drones murmured in unison as they marched toward Picard and his first officer, "We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Life as you know it is over. Resistance is futile."

Sharra was in shock and couldn't move so Picard had to drag her to her feet and then to a junction in the corridor. He quickly shouted, "Computer, activate level four forcefield on Deck-six Section J11!"

A golden shimmer appeared between the officers and the drones once the forcefield was enabled. Picard and his first officer didn't stop running, both hoping to reach the turbolift in time. When Picard glanced behind him, much to his surprise, he observed the drones passing through the forcefield as though it wasn't even there. Those were state-of-the-art emitters, technology that the Borg had never seen before. They should not have been able to pass through them, yet they did. If that wasn't bizarre enough, the drones were now _running_. For a moment, he wondered if Lore's enhanced Borg army that was first discovered at Ohniaka III had somehow risen from their grave. Even though the turbolift was only a few meters away, it suddenly seemed as though it was a galaxy away as the drones quickly traversed the space between them and the officers. Picard immediately tapped his combadge and blared, "Computer, emergency transport to the bridge, authorization Picard-Four-Seven-Alpha-Tango!"

_"__Transporters are offline__,"_ the computer casually replied as if there was no danger whatsoever.

Sharra tripped over her own feet and took down both her and her captain. The first drone that had appeared used its own transporter and materialized in front of Picard, effectively cutting them off while the other drones closed in from behind. Picard's artificial heart pulsed at seemingly impossible speeds as adrenaline saturated his blood while time seemed to slow down. They were trapped and all that they could do was simply wait for their eventual fate as the newest drones to join the Borg Collective.

He suddenly had a revelation. He and Sharra were not only still alive but also not yet assimilated. If experience was any proof, they both should have been injected by Borg nanoprobes by now, especially after the speed at which the drones were previously moving. It also became clear for Picard that it was far too coincidental for the Borg to arrive exactly when they did nearly when the weapon was beamed aboard from the _Yamato_.

Letting his instincts guide him, Picard craned his head to the first drone and boldly ordered, "Stand down!"

Fortunately, his suspicions were correct and the drone obeyed. After pressing a button on his wrist, the other drones had disappeared. They were nothing but elaborate holograms. Sharra snapped out of her shock, jolted to her feet and was about to throw a punch at the remaining drone when Picard raised his voice and sternly said, "At ease, Commander!"

Sharra bit her bottom lip in protest but nevertheless obeyed and instead helped her captain up, still wary of the drone.

Picard was going to call a medical team to the scene to help the security officers that were shot but when they both gingerly appeared further down the corridor, he decided otherwise. Instead, Picard coldly said to the drone, "You must be the weapon Starfleet sent us."

"I am, Captain Picard," the voice was deep with a mechanical echo, exactly what the voice of a Borg drone sounded like, "I am Commander Renny Kim'Taur, Tertiary Adjunct of Starfleet Unimatrix Five-Three. You will recognize this as a mock assault on your vessel; Admiral Nechayev requested I provide a brief demonstration of my capabilities and abilities. This was the most efficient means to do so. Your officers were stunned and will make a full recovery in a few hours. I have already re-enabled your transporter system. Captain Picard, I must brief you and your senior officers on your next mission. You will escort me to your conference room immediately."

The drone, or whatever it may be, confidently walked towards the turbolift. Sharra glanced at Picard with bewilderment while Picard sighed faintly and followed the drone in silence.


	3. Chapter 2

The Borg drone, Commander Kim'Taur as he identified himself, was standing in the observation lounge gazing at the stars through one of the windows. Before the experimentations, he remembered the gesture might have once indicated a sense of homesickness for him. Now, however, it was meaningless. His soul had been carved away years ago by Starfleet.

Instead of feeling homesick or anything for that matter, Kim'Taur was busy reanalyzing every detail about the Borg that Starfleet had uploaded to his memory banks in preparation for the mission. He heard the door slide open with a gentle _shoosh_ followed by the soft footfalls of the senior staff. Kim'Taur re-filed the opened files into memory for later use and walked to the open seat but didn't bother to sit down, indicating a sense of urgency. Thermal scans of the now seated officers indicated most of them were anxious and intimidated no doubt due to Kim'Taur's presence, and understandably so.

Since the Enterprise's first encounter with the Borg 23 years ago, the Collective has been responsible for the deaths of millions upon millions of Federation civilians and Starfleet personnel. The Borg had even attempted to assimilate Earth in the second half of the 21st century when humanity was in shambles recovering from World War III.

Kim'Taur noted that one of the officers, however, was far different from the others and gave off extremely erratic readings. Kim'Taur regarded her with curiosity for her species was not in his memory banks oddly.

Picking up on the drone's interest in the woman, Picard broke the tense silence and introduced his officers beginning with the woman, "Commander Kim'Taur, that is Lieutenant Jillani Monroe, ship's consoleor."

"You can call me Jillani, everyone else does," she warmly replied with a welcoming but faint smile.

Picard continued with the introductions even though they were irrelevant to Kim'Taur, "On your left is Lieutenant Moor of Ops, and to his left, Lieutenant Commander Jason Kardaz, our resident Trill Tactical officer."

According to his memory banks, Kim'Taur learned that the Trill are symbiote ic hosts for a parasitic life form and that the memories of the previous hosts are retained in the current host through the parasite. It was vaguely similar to how memories are stored within the Collective even after a drone expired.

The ops officer represented a race known as the Ferengi, which unlike the Trill, had nothing in common with the Borg and was rather undesirable for assimilation. They often lacked physical strength and mental capacities due to their profound devoutness to business and profiteering. As Picard formally introduced Commander Sharra, Kim'Taur observed the Ferengi trying desperately to avoid eye contact. Scans of his jaw revealed strong muscle contractions which could result in dental fractures; a biological trait that tended to indicate fear or anger.

The captain looked down the conference table to the other officers seated on his left and introduced them as well sparring no haste, "Doctor Falhana Falai, Chief Medical Officer, the first Denobulan doctor in the Fleet since the Archer-era."

"Nice to meet you, hmm?" Falai cheerfully replied. Kim'Taur quickly accessed the Denobulan files and noted his species were nearly always joyous and chipper—they were an inefficient people by Borg standards.

"Lieutenant Commander Chen Won, our Chief Engineer," Picard stated. Won regarded Kim'Taur with the outmost curiosity but was simply interested in the mechanics behind Kim'Taur, as any engineer would.

"And Subcommander Torlus," Picard's tone had changed into a subtle coldness, "Our…_attaché_ to the Romulan Empire." Kim'Taur recalled the war with the Dominion had forged a brittle alliance with the Romulans, the Federation's sworn enemy for generations. Many Starfleet officers, including Picard hadn't truly accepted the alliance—they believed it was just another ploy in the eternal chess game with the Romulan Empire.

"Acknowledged," Kim'Taur briskly replied and immediately began the briefing by bringing up a star chart on the viewscreen next to Kim'Taur.

"Your orders are to search this system," Kim'Taur continued as the map zoomed in on a sector of space, "the Kalanna sector, for a Borg cube that will be in the area. Once located, you will close in and transport me onboard. You will then disengage and leave the system while I assimilate the cube. When I succeed, I will rendezvous with the Enterprise at nine-three-two-five-mark-one-two where you will escort the cube to Earth for further study and dissection."

Picard and his officers considered the mission in silence with distain and astonishment before Kim'Taur forcefully added, "You will comply."

After a few more moments of silence, Sharra verbalized what everyone was thinking, "That's insane! Even if we happen to find a Borg cube, there are thousands of drones on board, you'll be killed or assimilated yourself faster than we can jump to warp!"

Won tactfully added, "Based on what I have seen so far, Commander, if you get assimilated, you would transform the Collective into a…Super race that even Species 8472 could not handle."

"Irrelevant," Kim'Taur echoed, "I cannot be assimilated into the Collective. My nanoprobes are programmed to aggressively seek and destroy foreign objects such as Borg nanites."

The chief engineer suddenly had a revelation, "Like Commander Data's anti-virus system that allowed him protection from Borg assimilation techniques."

That hit a sour note with Picard that triggered fond memories of his friend and previous ops officer to flash before his eyes. He quickly dismissed the memories while his expression remained stoic and unchanged during the exchange.

"Correct," Kim'Taur replied, "Only my system is more efficient."

Sharra countered, "Alright, alright! Let's say you _don't_ get assimilated, there's still the matter of, oh, I don't know, the fact that cubes are filled with _thousands_ of Borg drones! Even a hundred Jem'Hadar couldn't possibly take out all those drones and live to tell about it, let alone one renegade Borg drone like you."

"Irrelevant. I will survive and I will destroy or assimilate all Borg in my path," Kim'Taur reasoned as Sharra laughed under her breath in disbelief. Ignoring her, he explained, "Tactical manuals, after action reports, war texts, simulations, veteran combat diaries and strategies amassed from 23 species have been uploaded to my memory banks. In addition, I received extensive combat training from various warriors that are considered the best fighters in the Alpha Quadrant including Master Satik of Vulcan, Gul Malak of Cardassia, Brother Ki Zhou Wyann of Earth and Ambassador Worf, Son of Mogh."

That certainly grabbed Picard's attention. "Worf trained you?" Picard repeated with surprise, still not entirely trusting his hearing. Granted the others were indeed famous for their fighting prowess but Picard's respect and admiration for Worf went far beyond notoriety. He wouldn't bother training someone unless he saw great potential in the trainee. Picard suddenly felt more confident in Kim'Taur's abilities after learning of Worf's involvement. It wasn't absolute confidence but it was definitely a step forward.

"Correct, Captain Picard. Ambassador Worf and the other Klingon material were most beneficial to my development. Combined with the rest of the knowledge I have at my disposal, I am, in effect, an army of one."

"An army of one," Picard scowled at such a brazen idea. As if to challenge the claim, Picard demanded, "Outline your abilities, beyond your training and assimilation of tactical manuals."

"I have the ability to create multiple holographic decoys," Kim'Taur began rattling off, "I utilize a personal, short-range transporter device which also emits a high energy field, doubling as an enhanced version of a Borg shield. My optical system has been enhanced for optimal targeting proficiency which is fully integrated with advanced proximity detection. I have been equipped with a wrist-mounted phaser, an advanced phaser rifle, an experimental Tetryon rifle in addition to various bladed weapons.

"My training has made me highly proficient on each weapon but I am just as capable using my bare hands. My strength has been rated as the equivalent of three Klingons. My nanoprobes allow me to heal any damage I may sustain, can be used to amplify my strength and speed, and of course can be utilized for assimilation of the Borg. I am impervious to fear and intimidation and I am equipped with various, redundant fail safes such as obeying all orders from Starfleet Command and upholding the Prime Directive."

Picard quickly realized that Kim'Taur could indeed be an army of one as he had said. It was a terrifying thought, but at least Starfleet had the wisdom to install fail safes should something go terribly wrong with the commando.

Torlus also realized the full scope and implication of Kim'Taur as well and interrupted the drone before he could list further abilities. "Captain Picard," Torlus grinded his teeth grudgingly and then hissed, "The Romulan Empire will not stand for this insolence. We should have been briefed on this weapon prior to this briefing and well before its development and conception."

"Subcommander," Picard wearingly replied, "This is in fact the first time I've heard about this project as well, for once, we know exactly as much as the other knows." The Romulan grumbled to himself and reluctantly left it at that though Picard knew he'd be hearing more from him after the mission briefing. Turning to face Kim'Taur once again, he boomed, "I understand you are based on the I-Mod weapon developed by Seven of Nine. Please elaborate, Commander."

"The technology of the Infinity Modulator has nothing to do with my creation," Kim'Taur neutrally explained, "The story of that weapon was used as a ploy to detour unauthorized personnel from obtaining the correct intelligence."

The eyes on the Romulan widened with genuine surprise.

"However," Kim'Taur added, "the basic concept still applies. The Infinity Modulator turned Borg technology against the Collective while part of my functionality also uses their technology against them."

Picard quickly considered Kim'Taur's words, still unable to determine if the drone could possibly succeed. "And what if you should fail your mission?" He voiced.

"Failure is irrelevant."

"Surely you must be prepared for such a scenario, even as unlikely as it may be, Commander," Picard replied, unwilling to let it go until he got the answer he sought.

"Failure is irrelevant."

"Ugh dammit, just humor us!" Sharra yelled as a vein in her forehead briefly appeared. She paused for a moment to compose herself before she reiterated in a calmer voice, "What if you fail?"

Kim'Taur paused for a moment before he replied in the ever-eerie mechanical echoed voice, "If the cube cannot be taken, then I am programmed to detonate an anti-matter charge which would destroy the cube."

Picard was surprised that Kim'Taur decided to answer Sharra but was still glad he had answered nevertheless, even if the captain didn't show it.

"Anti-matter charge? You mean a photon torpedo?" Won asked in wonder and fathomed a traditional, man-sized torpedo case, "One of those weighs several hundred kilos and you'd need more than one to destroy a Borg cube. There is no way for you to manually position all of them that are required, let alone one, even for your servos and hydraulic-amplified strength."

"I, ah, I agree," Kardaz nodded his head, "And there, uh, well, there isn't enough bang in your grenades either."

"Starfleet has redesigned the concept," Kim'Taur's voice bore a faint indication of annoyance, "This is the new high-grade anti-matter explosive I am equipped with." The Borg commando pressed a hidden button on his chest plate and revealed a fist-sized metallic ball. He pulled it out of its compartment and placed it on the conference table for all to see. When he did, he added, "This object is the equivalent to 30 quantum torpedoes."

The officers rigidly sat back against their chairs, half expecting the device to explode after hearing how ungodly powerful it was. That was nearly half of the payload of quantum torpedoes the _Enterprise_ had on board. The officers nervously looked to Picard, each wondering if the ship should go to Red Alert or simply be evacuated while the device was onboard.

Kim'Taur assured them with further explanation of the device. "This high-yield explosive will only detonate if my nanoprobes infiltrate the device." His words hardly soothed the people's fear but they did seem to take it in stride.

"Unbelievable," Torlus uttered as he shook his head disapprovingly, "First you build a Borg soldier that already has the potential to destroy an entire species then you people have the audacity to give it a bomb that can vaporize a small planet!? Tell me, Picard, has Starfleet lost its mind? I can see why the Vulcans are so infuriated with your people now."

"Subcommander," Picard sternly responded as he stared into Torlus' eyes, "While you are serving aboard my ship as my crew, you will address me as Captain. I understand your grievances but it is neither the time nor the place. Now then," Picard's tone became somewhat softer as he returned his attention to the other officers, "That kind of yield will certainly destroy a Borg ship but one cannot help but wonder why Starfleet simply didn't produce more of those explosives. Why go to the trouble of creating a living weapon when the device can just as easily accomplish the same task?"

All eyes turned to Kim'Taur before he nonchalantly replied, "Any means of testing the explosive would immediately result in undue destruction of the testing facility and surrounding area. In addition, when I complete my first authentic test against the Borg, then an assault force of similar models can be duplicated and sent to the Delta Quadrant to eradicate what is believed to be the main base of Borg operations. Explosives lack the intelligence to locate the Borg."

"Ah, Commander Kim-Kim'Taur," Kardaz uneasily asked as the drone finally inserted the explosive back into its chest compartment, "Earlier you-you said we're to take you to the, ah, the Kalanna System but why would the Borg be there? I-I mean one of my previous hosts used to run freighters through that system and-and her memories indicated it was a-a barren area of space with the closest civilization several light-years away. I-it's the middle of nowhere."

"I agree," Moor confirmed, still avoiding contact with the drone, "Long range sensors indicate there's nothing there other than a few asteroids and space dust, plus it's well out of Federation territory."

Picard's eyebrows flinched upwards with anticipation of Kim'Taur's response. He too wondered why the Borg would be in that sector as well as why Starfleet was so confident that it would be there. He listened intently on Kim'Taur's explanation.

"The cube's mission in that region is unknown," the drone explained, "A Starfleet operative has recently been assimilated by the Borg. The operative had a tracking device imbedded into his skin that allowed Starfleet to monitor the cube's location. Do you require additional information to complete your mission?"

His answer bothered Picard but he remained silent as his Chief Medical Officer spoke up, anxious to contribute to the briefing. "How unfortunate for the operative…But yes, I have a question. What species are you exactly? Before the ah, Borg modifications hmmm?"

"Irrelevant," came the mechanical monotone.

"Eh," the doctor glanced at Picard before he replied with a smile, "To ensure proper treatment in the event of injury, I'm afraid I must insist."

"Irrelevant. My nanoprobes will regenerate any injuries I may sustain."

Picard uncrossed his legs and demanded, "You are…A Starfleet Borg Officer. You will comply, Commander." He noted his words felt awkward to say but it was exactly what Kim'Taur was after all.

The laser implant on the side of the drone's head moved erratically for a moment as Kim'Taur processed the request, almost as if there was a conflict between two sub-routines. Finally, he responded.

"I am Breen."

The air was nearly sucked out of the room for no one, not even Picard, would have imagined Kim'Taur was Breen. His species were fierce warriors whose skills often surpassed the Klingons and probably would have been more than a match for the Jem'Hadar had the Breen chose not to join them in battle. They are never seen off their freezing home world without their full-bodied refrigeration suits, which doubled as an effective armor in combat. Since the suit also included a full-headed helmet, their entire appearance was hidden from all. Even the Founders were not aware of their appearance when the Breen served them in the Dominion War.

Upon this new information, the officers inspected Kim'Taur with a renewed sense of curiosity. Though Borg implants covered most of his body, there were still holes of naked flesh, which was concentrated on his face. Kim'Taur's right eye, his only biological one left, was a silver-yellow while his pupil was more oval instead of a circle. Below that was a series of simple tribal tattoos—three black rectangular lines above a green semi-circle. His nose seemed like that of a Human's. Kim'Taur's lips were dark blue with two small slivers of white peeking through. The officers realized that the slivers were actually the tips of the Breen's fangs. They also observed that although the Borg nanoprobes had made his complexion into a leathered white, it still had a subtle tint of blue suggesting a complexion similar to that of the Andorians.

"I see," Falai half chuckled and added, "Well, there's a first time for everything I suppose. I would like to run a few routine scans on you later to learn more about Breen physiology if you wouldn't mind, hmm?"

"I will comply," Kim'Taur resigned to the doctor's wishes even though they didn't reside within the mission parameters."

"Oh and are you the result of simple Borg implantation or genetic alteration?" Doctor Falai joyfully inquired.

"I am the product of both, Doctor Falai," Kim'Taur flatly stated.

"Can you elaborate?" Falai asked.

"Negative. That information is restricted."

"Hmph," Sharra grudgingly grunted.

Picard had heard enough as well. "Mm yes of course, Commander Kim'Taur, please step outside. The security officers will escort you to cargo bay two." During Kim'Taur's transport to the _Enterprise_, the _Yamato_ had simultaneously beamed aboard a Borg alcove adapted to Starfleet technology that Kim'Taur stepped into for his daily regeneration cycle which allowed the organic components of the drone to be recharged for the next day.

Kim'Taur gave a final glance at the one known as Jillani before he moved towards the exit. When the doors slid behind him, the observation lounge broke into chaos with objections and additional points being made, each officer speaking at the same time of their fellow officers. Picard and Jillani were the only ones not saying anything at all. Picard listened to the collective roar of his subordinates for a moment longer before he stood up and casually walked to the replicator. Perhaps in his younger years, he would have talked above them, beckoning for order. Now that he should have retired years ago, Picard no longer indulged in such acts.

"Tea. Earl Grey. Hot," he uttered into the replicator. Once his favorite beverage materialized, he grabbed it and walked to the same window where Kim'Taur once stood before the briefing. He took a sip and silently waited for his officers to quiet down. A few sips later, his senior staff got the hint. He gave them another moment to settle down before he walked back to the table and sat down, placing his cup on the table in front of him. He noticed most of the officers were looking at him apologetically, silently acknowledging they were out of line. Jillani, though, was smiling at Picard, admiring his subtle but effective tactic. Torlus was simply glaring at Picard with his arms crossed, as usual.

Now pleased with his officers' behavior, Picard looked at Sharra and calmly questioned, "Now then, Number One, your thoughts?"

"Sir," Sharra's voice trembled not with fear but with the anger that was slowly fading as she struggled to maintain a neutral tone, "Assuming we _do_ find a cube, if we beam over Kim'Taur, our shields will be down. The Borg could beam over boarding parties of their own or rip us apart from their weapons. Either way, the _Enterprise_ would be in danger."

"And Captain," Won added, "if the Borg decide to pursue us after transport, even our Sovereign-class engines couldn't outrun them forever. The absolute maximum I can push our engines is Warp nine point five, cubes can easily obtain nine point _seven_ five."

"Mm, both good points," Picard reasoned, "Other comments?"

"This is ridiculous!" The enraged Romulan finally released his hellfire and sharply stood up. "What guarantee does the Empire have that the Federation won't unleash these…These…_Abominations_ into Romulan space?"

"Newsflash," Moor grinned revealing his pointed and uneven Ferengi teeth, "The Empire and Federation are allies and allies don't kill each other."

Torlus glared into the depths of Moor's latinum-plated soul for a moment before remarking, "Alliances are promises waiting to be broken." Upon turning to Picard, Torlus demanded in the same chilling tone, "It as well as all relevant research should be destroyed immediately while scrubbing this advantageous mission of yours."

"I'm afraid that's out of the question, Subcommander," Picard leaned back in his chair, subtly relishing the opportunity to remind his Romulan counterpart that this is no Romulan ship, and that Torlus wouldn't always get what he wanted.

"Then I insist on obtaining the research pertaining to this so-called weapon for the Empire in the interest of our…_Alliance_." Torlus glimpsed at the Ferengi across the table before his eyes returned to Picard.

"If this mission is successful," Picard assured in his most diplomatic tone, "I'm sure Starfleet will be happy to share its results with the Romulan Empire."

"But not the data for creating a Borg hybrid of our own? Hnh," Torlus expectantly nodded and while he sat back down, he mumbled, "Typical."

"Captain," Sharra Bii spoke up, eager to move past the Romulan outburst, "Kim'Taur's explanation didn't sit right with me either. I find it hard to believe an operative would be assimilated considering we don't _have_ operatives."

"Ha!" Torlus blurted but otherwise remained quiet.

Picard ignored the Romulan and nodded in agreement with his first officer. "Indeed. Clearly he's withholding information or isn't telling us the entire truth."

"_Clearly_," the Romulan said in a very near-mocking way.

"Well Sir," Kardaz spoke up as he crossed his arms, hoping to get everyone past the Romulan's cynicism, "I-I don't, oh uh, with respect to Ambassador Worf, I mean, I don't think his training will help Kim'Taur much. He'll be too outnumbered and in-in my professional opinion, Sir, he, ah, he won't s-stand much of a chance over there, even-even if he's, you know, a Breen."

"Oh I'm not sure of that, Mister Trill," Falai ringed with a chipper smile also eager to move beyond the Romulan's paranoia, "He mentioned he intends to assimilate the Borg. We know from experience that a single Borg can effectively establish a foothold in Federation vessels. As you might recall, Captain, that's exactly what happened on this very ship a few years ago, when the Borg went back in time in an attempt to assimilate Earth in the past."

"I'm quite familiar with the incident, Doctor, I was there," Picard gleamed as he took another sip of tea.

"Yes, well," the Denobulan nodded and continued with his cheery ranting, "Anyways I'm no security officer but I presume the tactic is still sound to use against the Borg."

Kardaz shrugged his shoulders and shakily voiced his thoughts, "I-I suppose. It-it would be like a-a-a snowball effect where he'd make one drone join him, then they assimilate additional drones and on and on and on, it's definitely a proven Borg, ah, well, Borg tactic. It sh-should work when-when we turn the tables on the Borg. I, ah, would imagine Kim'Taur could assemble a formidable collective of his own within two or, well, maybe three hours. The trick is, a lot can, you know, happen in two hours and I'm not really sure how the Borg would be, ah, assimilated, with additional Borg, ah, Borg nanoprobes."

"That's easy," Won confidently replied, "While I'm not sure how exactly Kim'Taur's nanoprobes function, I do know that their ability to fight off enemy nanoprobes would be transferred to the Borg drone he assimilates. Kim'Taur's nanoprobes would eliminate the native nanoprobes already in the Borg while self replicating until they are the dominant element in the drone. It would also keep Kim'Taur's drones from being re-re-assimilated into the Collective if that makes any sense."

"Ah, like the _Serracopolis Coccai_ strain retro-virus on Rigel Seven," Falai twinkled in understanding before he thought how wondrous the microscopic robots truly were.

"Sure," Won replied, attempting to appear as if he actually knew what the doctor was referring.

"I'm still not recommending Kim'Taur to be deployed though," the doctor gaily pointed out.

"I thought you approved from that remark about assimilating the Borg?" Sharra squinted her eyes, which highlighted her nasal ridges, while trying to determine what the doctor's stand was in the matter.

"I was merely bringing another point to light," Falai's voice started to climb higher in pitch as he instinctively went on the defensive when his comments were questioned. Aware of his overly-defensiveness creeping up, he cleared his throat and stated, "I'm against this mission, as I said earlier.

"The human body was not designed to handle the alterations and implants Kim'Taur has endured. I imagine he could very well fall apart at the seams as you Humans would say." Human idioms always made Falai chuckle, that one was no different.

"He's not human though," Jillani injected, "Maybe his people are hardier than Humans."

Falai considered this for a few seconds before replying, "Hmm, perhaps but I'd rather not take the chance given what little we know about the Breen. It could even be possible that the Breen are more fragile than humans without their refrigeration exoskeletons they wear."

"What is your stance on the matter, Jillani?" Picard asked upon realizing she hadn't said anything else during the briefing.

Jillani simply answered, "The Borg are not to be trifled with, Captain."

Picard had a memory of Guinan, the ship's barkeep on the _Enterprise-D_, whom said the exact thing to him oddly enough. He didn't follow her sage advice then and it had nearly resulted in the destruction of the _Enterprise_. Still, Picard had a duty to perform, both then and now.

When his mind returned to the matter at hand, he found his officers looking at him in silence, waiting for his inevitable verdict. He was more than happy to oblige.

"Several years ago," Picard gloomily said as he held the cup of tea in his hands, allowing its warmth to hug his hands, "I was presented with an opportunity to kill the Borg using a virus. It was to be injected into a damaged drone we recovered at a Borg crash site and then was to be introduced into the Collective when the Borg salvaged the crash victims.

"A problem arose which hampered that decision. The drone that we recovered had severed its link with the Collective and formed an individual awareness. At that moment, it had ceased to be a drone and been deemed sentient once more. According to the Prime Directive, the supreme law that bounds us to our duty, we could no longer use the drone as a tool of destruction as it, _he_, had rights as any other form of life we encounter. So we returned Hugh, as he became known on the ship, back to the crash site per his wishes without the virus.

"Later, the Borg assimilated a Ktarian colony, hundreds of thousands were lost or assimilated. Those people and countless others would no doubt still be alive today had I chose to use the virus then. Now that a second opportunity has presented itself, despite what we are all hesitant to do, we do not have the luxury of allowing this opportunity to pass.

"Mister Moor, set course for the Kalanna System, Warp factor five. Computer, Yellow Alert."


	4. Chapter 3

MEANWHILE…

The Borg queen stood before six large monitors on board a Borg diamond overseeing the assimilation of a densely populated pre-warp system while simultaneously directing the Borg in other sectors with her numerous links attached to her mind. Under normal operating procedures, the queen would have not yet assimilated the system that appeared on her screens as they were technologically inferior and offered little contribution to the Collective. However, the war with Species 8472 had decimated the Borg population. In order to boost their numbers as quickly as possible, the queen had temporarily forgone achieving perfection by assimilating advanced races and instead chose to assimilate practically anyone the Borg encountered. While quality was being sacrificed, the queen's efforts were effectively paying off through quantity. What was once only a mere 100,000 drones in a dozen sectors after the war with Species 8472, now swelled to over 20 million spanning two quadrants of space.

The queen was going to order a pyramid ship to assist in the assimilation of Species 91875 featured on her screens when she received a signal pulse from a cube in the Kalanna System. The cube had pursued a Federation Galaxy-class starship into the system and then engaged in a brief firefight with the vessel before the ship rammed the cube at full impulse. The saucer section was able to penetrate deeply in the cube's hull causing damage to main propulsion before the cube's tractor beams could stop the Federation ship. The remainder of the ship was disabled and assimilation procedures were now under way.

Upon receiving this information, the Borg queen became rather disturbed. In all the battles the Borg have fought against the Federation, there were no instances of this tactic used by the Federation. Their people valued life and should have instead attempted to deploy escape pods before sacrificing their ship in such a manner. Yet scans showed no such pods were used in the encounter. She switched the screens in front of her to the image of the damaged cube. Indeed, the cube was moderately damaged, painfully obvious due to the fact that the Federation ship was still protruding from the cube's hull like a broken bone.

Knowledge and memories of the ship's crew began trickling into her mind as their links with the Collective became active through assimilation. Most of the information, however, was irrelevant to the situation at hand. The queen noted that the assimilated crew was largely unaware of what their mission was or why they provoked the cube. That too was rare for a Federation vessel. She concluded they were deliberately kept uninformed suggesting their superiors _expected_ them to be assimilated.

Suddenly, a key crewman had been assimilated, which pulled the corners of the queen's lips upward. The assimilated crewman was the captain of the ship—a prize in itself as the Collective gained all the secrets and knowledge the captain knew. Furthermore, he was Vulcan. His mental capabilities were of great demand for the Collective. His mind was of course difficult to break upon assimilation, but like all Vulcans that fell before him, he too eventually broke and surrendered his will to the Collective. When that happened, all became clear to the queen and her smirk grew into a devious smile.

"BX-3553," she communicated to a newly created tactical cube, "Alter course to 3125.38, the Kalanna System. Assist Cube 146 in repairs then assimilate the Federation Starship NCC-1701-E _Enterprise_ and their new weapon."

"We will comply," the Borg replied.

She switched her screens back to the original images and waited with great anticipation for the Borg's most powerful ship to assimilate the Federation's flagship and the secrets it had. It would be _most_ _ideal_ for Jean-Luc Picard to return to serve the Collective as Locutus of Borg. Together, Locutus and the queen made a formidable union.

--

"Patch it through, Lieutenant," Picard wearingly said as he walked onto the bridge with Subcommander Torlus following. It had been nearly four hours since the briefing with Kim'Taur and the only thing he had to show for it was a headache after a lengthy meeting with a very-much perturbed Romulan liaison.

"_I………Distress………Breaches………….Repeat……The…._" The transmission they had received was heavily garbled and filled with static. A few seconds passed before the signal was significantly improved, though still riddled with static and the explosions and klaxons in the background weren't helping.

"_I repeat, thi….Commander Pactan of…_S.S. Yamato_. We have engaged the…In the Kalanna…Multi…Breeches on decks…….Shields down, life support failing. The…Have……Us…This is a general…--ress signal to any…In the area."_ Phaser fire was suddenly heard in the background. Picard stepped closer to the viewscreen with horror as screams were now heard which were intertwined with mechanical movements. The final moments of the transmission ended with Commander Pactan gasping sharply in pain as though he was choking on something. Picard knew better, it was the Borg. The _Yamato_ had been assimilated. The transmission quickly ended with a chime from the communication system.

"The signal was cut, Sir," Moor solemnly reported.

"Helm, maximum war,." Picard decisively bellowed as he returned to his chair_._ Even with the change in speed, the Kalanna system was still several hours away. Still, the _Enterprise_ had a duty to search for any survivors and with any luck, the ship would arrive in one piece to rescue them.

"Speed increase laid in, Captain."

With a nod, Picard boldly uttered, "Engage." 

--

Through a hazy fog, Renny Kim'Taur of the Imperial Breen Marines watched the man with absolute hatred as a hypospray pierced his frost-blue skin, injecting him with who knows what. He snarled in protest. The serum burned his blood, changing him—changing him into a monster. It was the first of many such injections yet to come.

The beast within him tried with every shred of strength Kim'Taur had to free himself, vowing to kill every so-called doctor in this room as well as every_ so'paa_ responsible for his capture. His efforts were futile and only met with failure. The bindings that imprisoned him were invisible yet they were far stronger than he was and kept him firmly in place. His skin tingled whenever he attempted to escape and the more he resisted, the more drained he felt from the magic that bound him. All the while, he was in agonizing pain not only from the poisons he was being injected with but also from the torture of being imprisoned against his will like a caged animal.

Indeed, he was infuriated with the Federation pink skins but he was also enraged with himself. He was a soldier in the Imperial Marines. He was trained to avoid capture at all costs, trained to fight, trained to die. Yet the pink skins abducted him without even much of a fight. He failed his training, he failed the emperor and worse yet, he failed his family. He roared his children's names in anguish,

"Di'Ta! Po'Kya'Larp!"

He roared again as he summoned every drop of determination he had and again tried to free himself. To his surprise, his wrists had moved several centimeters above the table on which he lay restrained. He was doing it! He was breaking the invisible chains! Sparks erupted from the control panel above his head and the sizzle of the invisible chains grew louder and into a high-pitched whine as they strained to contain their prisoner. The pink skins became frantic and Kim'Taur fed on the increasing chaos of his environment. He gave another desperate push on his restrains before a blue light appeared around his wrists before quickly disappearing again. This time, his arms sprang free at last! One of the pink skins approached him with another hypospray in his hand, no doubt more poison to end his life; the elite soldier concluded that he must be too much trouble to keep. They should have killed him when they had the chance. Now that freedom was possible, Kim'Taur's love for his children only fueled his determination for escape. He grabbed the _so'paa _with the device and tossed him into a bulkhead, knocking him out.

He had just freed his legs after smashing a nearby console when three Federation soldiers wearing green trim poured into the room. He never felt so alive before! This was what he was bred for, this is what he lived for—for battle! One of the enemy soldiers fired his phaser at the Imperial Marine. Despite being restrained in place for several weeks, his body easily dodged the orange energy beam. He immediately closed in and dispatched the soldier just as a second beam was fired and struck him. He was dazed but Kim'Taur quickly shook it off and struck the other soldier with a stiff blow across his jaw. The third soldier grappled him from behind so Kim'Taur launched himself backwards, hard into the bulkhead. Kim'Taur broke the loosened grip and spun around with a bone crunching kick to the soldier's ribs. Fury and rage had devoured him at that point and he brutally wretched the pink skin's neck before he threw the lifeless body across the room.

The alien Marine stumbled into the corridor and noticed something was _moving_ inside his body; moving systematically from one system to another, as if it had an intelligence of its own. More soldiers appeared down the hall and he brazenly charged them with a fearless battle cry, attempting to push the terrifying feeling within him away. He dodged a few energy beams before he lost concentration and dropped to the deck, writhing in pain. He wasn't shot though. The pain was emanating from within him, betraying him to his captors. What had the pink skins done to him? What was happening in his body? Why was it moving so much? Nothing in the body moves like that! Then whatever it was reached his brain,

And the real pain began.

Kim'Taur gargled a bloodcurdling scream of agony, desperately wanting to be put out of his misery. His brain felt like it was a chew toy of a Klingon Targ—it was being stabbed, twisted, pulled, _devoured_, or so it felt. Suddenly his body couldn't take it anymore and it began to convulse as his heart beat faster and faster with every passing second.

"He's going into cardiac arrest!" One of the pink skins shouted behind him. Kim'Taur recognized the voice as the same voice that belonged to the deranged scientist that started all of this. "Twenty CCs of Cordrazine!" He added.

Before they could inject him with yet another toxin, Kim'Taur suddenly found himself looking down at his own body that lay before him. The soldiers had turned him over to his back so that he could see his face. His skin, he noted, had changed from a healthy blue to a corpse-like off-white. His once silky silver hair had long since fallen out. His eyes were dark and sunken. As a final observation during his out-of-body experience, the left side of his skull was twitching beyond his comprehension. Soon, a spike-like metallic object shot through his skull where it was once twitching and spread itself out into a starburst pattern flat against his head.

Kim'Taur abruptly woke from his regeneration cycle on board the _Enterprise_ and casually stepped out of his alcove. Perhaps in another life, he would have considered those events as a horrifying nightmare of a traumatic past. In the now, however, they were only irrelevant images. The Starfleet drone referenced his internal chronometer with the ship's itinerary and concluded his presence would not be required for another two days assuming the _Enterprise_ maintained course and speed. To better himself for his upcoming task, he decided to make use of the ship's acclaimed holodeck.

When he left Cargo Bay Two, two security officers followed Kim'Taur down the corridor. They were unnecessary as he contained both the schematics of the _Enterprise_ and the composure of a Starfleet officer but he tolerated their presence in the interest of completing his mission as designated. He suspected the officers were mostly there to bring personal assurance to the other members of the crew. Nearly every crewmember Kim'Taur passed, scans of their bodies indicated high levels of fear, anger and anxiety in his presence.

After a brief march to the turbolift and then through additional corridors on a different deck, the drone arrived at Holodeck One but found a program was already running. He considered trying one of the other rooms but observed the current program running was entitled 'Worf's Callisthetics-1-Alpha.' Kim'Taur cocked his head slightly before issuing the command to open the doorway.

Once the jigsaw doors opened, Kim'Taur stepped inside while the pair of security officers remained in the corridor. The doors closed and the arch disappeared. What now surrounded Kim'Taur was a dimly lit, dense jungle environment that smelled of decaying flesh, which was amplified by the suffocating humidity. The drone stood in place scanning the area, unsure what was expected of him. Some birds above him high in the leafy canopy were startled and quickly flew away, squawking and cawing all the way. His proximity alarm alerted him to a large object approaching him from behind sparing no haste. Kim'Taur remained in place like a statue while he continued to monitor the object's progress.

_50 meters…_

_40 meters…_

_30...20…10 meters…_

He waited one more moment before he sliced his arm behind him, the motion triggering a scythe-like blade to spring from his forearm. Something jolted his arm but Kim'Taur stood firmly and didn't budge. When he glanced behind him, he saw an unknown, large, bi-pedal creature with an oily white skin and drool dribbling from its numerous fangs impaled onto his blade. He retracted the blade and stepped forward while the creature fell to the ground with a hefty thump. Kim'Taur had expected a greater challenge from his former teacher, Worf, if he had truly built this simulation. After hearing metal weapons clamoring in the distance, Kim'Taur grabbed his Tetryon rifle from his shoulder and hurried to the scene of the battle.

By the time he closed in, he heard a female voice utter incoherent strings of coarse and vulgar vocabulary. He determined they were dialects native to Earth and Bajor. Instead of rushing blindly into battle, Kim'Taur holstered his rifle and remained hidden behind some shrubbery while he continued to assess the situation.

He saw two vicious-looking aliens, each armed with Klingon weaponry, engaging an equally armed, albeit fatigued, Sharra Bii. She was surprisingly holding her own despite her opponents' distinct advantages over her. She growled a hellish battle cry while unleashing a potent blow to one of the alien's torso, forcing him to double-over. She finished him off after connecting with a violent knee to the creature's face. When she focused on the remaining enemy, a third opponent darted out of the forest behind Sharra. She cursed at the sight of yet another being to fight and continued to tap into her Bajoran rage. She clanked blades with the dueling alien as the other closed in.

Kim'Taur observed her stance was inefficient—it was off balanced and her blows were fueled by raw power instead of grace; it was no wonder why she had become so tired as she was not only fighting the aliens but also her own body. Suddenly, one of the beings kicked her hard, causing her to stumble backwards before she tripped on a surfaced tree root. The creature responsible for this took the opportunity to end her life by raising his weapon high above his head.

Before the creature could carry out his deathblow, Kim'Taur sprang into action by popping out of the bushes and after detaching a dagger-like blade from a hip compartment, he threw the knife at the one threatening Sharra. With no effort at all, the overly sharpened blade impacted the back of the alien's fury head, killing him. Before its body could fall, Kim'Taur had already lunged for the other opponent, applying a deadly Vulcan nerve pinch. Both bodies fell in unison as Commander Sharra blinked wildly at the aliens as they fell, unable to understand what just happened.

Attributing the kills to some hotshot security officer, she grunted angrily and pulled herself up. With her back towards Kim'Taur, she doubled over and wiped some perspiration off her forehead before she grabbed her knees to catch her breath. Between huffs, she managed to get out, "What the hell are you doing, crewman?"

"You required assistance in this simulation, Commander Bii."

The mechanical echo of that voice startled her but she quickly realized it was Kim'Taur standing before her. She rigidly straightened up and bitterly spat, "Like hell I did. And it's Sharra, _Commander_ _Sharra_, Bajoran surnames come first in our culture. You should have your memory checked for bugs."

"This program is not adequate for training purposes," Kim'Taur pointed out, ignoring the goading behavior of the agitated female officer.

"Yeah? Well who invited you?"

Kim'Taur considered the question before responding. "No one invited me. I was…_Curious_."

Sharra bellied an uneasy laugh, unsure of how exactly to behave. "I thought the Borg aren't curious."

"I am not entirely Borg, Commander Sharra," Kim'Taur countered.

Perhaps with a glimmer of understanding, Sharra slowly nodded and grudgingly said, "So it's a fight you want?" She pulled the knife out of the creature's head and tossed it to Kim'Taur. "Fine. Computer, restart program, _level two_."

The computer chirped in compliance before the creatures were resurrected with a second wind. Before combat could ensure, however, the ship entered Red Alert, automatically pausing the holodeck program. Around them boomed a voice that might have well been God Himself speaking.

"All hands, Red Alert! Senior staff to the bridge." It was Captain Picard and judging from the urgency of his voice, something was seriously wrong.

"Computer, end program," Sharra clipped and the jungle disappeared with her command leaving behind a black and yellow grid, "Looks like we'll need to take a rain check on this for a while."

She hurried towards the exit with Kim'Taur keeping close behind her.

Once they boarded the turbolift along with Kim'Taur's escorts, they arrived at the bridge within moments. Sharra wanted to assess the situation first before she changed her tattered uniform. She moved to her station as Picard acknowledged her presence. Upon noting that his entire staff had now been assembled, Picard coolly explained the situation to them.

"After receiving a distress signal from the _Yamato_, we increased speed and arrived in the Kalanna System, the origin of the transmission, ahead of schedule only to find the _Yamato_ heavily damaged—most of her saucer section has been destroyed—with evidence of the Borg onboard."

"Captain," Moor at Ops said as his fingers raced over his console, "I briefly detected what seemed to be a Borg ship leaving the sector but before I could establish a sensor lock, the ship just disappeared."

Picard crossed his legs at his command chair and brought a hooked finger to his chin in puzzlement before his asked, "You mean the ship jumped to warp?"

"No Sir," Moor's fingers stopped momentarily, "Long range sensors would still be picking up a warp trail and there's no sign of a trans-warp conduit being used either. It just…_disappeared_."

"Uh, Captain," Kardaz quietly added from Tactical, "Maybe they have a c-cloaking device."

Picard slowly pulled his hand away and stared at the view screen in silence, searching for an answer. It was unlikely the Borg would use stealth technology but still possible. The Borg could have adapted a cloaking device since their last confrontation with the Federation a few years ago.

"Scan for spatial distortions and ion trails common to known cloak technology," Picard immediately ordered even though to him, it seemed eons had passed before he voiced his order.

"Aye Captain," Moor acknowledged.

"Mister Kardaz, any survivors on the _Yamato_?" Picard asked, already knowing the answer from the faint Borg Collective he could hear.

"Well, ah, more or less, Sir," Kardaz explained as he quickly glanced up from Tactical, "I'm reading 775 life forms on-on board—all Borg."

"Escape pods?" Picard just had to be sure.

Kardaz sighed, greatly demoralized by his findings, "All…All pods are accounted for, Sir, um, none of them left the ship."

"There were over a thousand crewmen on board," Sharra somberly said in shock as she gazed at the saucer-less Galaxy-class ship.

Before Picard could refocus his crew, Kardaz shouted, "Ah Sir, the _Yamato_ is powering up weapons and engines!"

Picard gritted his teeth and ordered evasive maneuvers. A salvo of photon torpedoes missed the _Enterprise_ thanks to the fast response of her Helm officer. Picard regretted not having the time to meet the new officer at Helm. He was a very young ensign that couldn't have been much older than Wesley Crusher when he piloted the _Enterprise-D_. Before Picard could mull too much about that, Picard calmly ordered, "Lock onto her weapons and fire."

Picard wasn't new to combat and took the battle in perfect stride. He instilled this veteran confidence into his officers all of whom had little or no experience in ship combat. Since the Dominion War ended, the Federation has enjoyed a relatively peaceful quadrant, which unfortunately meant new officers were not gaining much battle experience.

"Ha-ha! Direct hit, Captain!" Kardaz proudly declared, his skill with weapons pushed him beyond his social awkwardness. "The _Yamato's_ weapons are offline!"

"Sir, the ship's making a run for it," the unknown ensign stated.

"Pursuit course, match their speed," Picard uncrossed his legs and punched a few commands on his chair, updating the ship's record of the battle unfolding.

"Captain Picard," Kim'Taur resonated, "Discontinue pursuit. It is a trap."

"How—" was all that Picard could say before an explosion rattled the _Enterprise_.

"Report!" Sharra demanded after the shockwave subsided.

"We struck some sort of cloaked mine, Sir!" Kardaz replied, "Shields holding at 90%."

"All stop," Picard beckoned.

"Sounding all stop, Captain."

After standing up and pulling hard on his tunic, Picard walked over to Ops manned by Moor. "Can you detect these mines, Lieutenant?"

"I think so, Sir, it might take some time though."

"Make it so," Picard nodded and watched the _Yamato_ on the viewscreen. It was holding position as well, almost daring the _Enterprise_ to continue to follow her deeper into the minefield.

"Uh-oh," Kardaz muttered, prompting an ominous stare from Picard.

"Commander?" He asked, implying Kardaz to elaborate.

"Ah…T-two Borg cubes have appeared off our port and-and starboard side of the saucer section."

"Whaddya mean _appeared_!?" Sharra questioned in disbelief with a glint of fear in her eyes.

"It um, gets worse," Kardaz added, "Sir, one of them is a-a tactical cube."

Picard snapped his head to face the viewscreen and demanded, "On screen."

With a blink of light as the viewscreen changed, there they were; two Borg cubes displayed side-by side, dwarfing Picard.

One of them was a standard black cube with green highlights but the other, the tactical cube, had an additional layer of a silver-colored armor added to its hull. With the exception of _Voyager's_ brief encounter with one such ship in the Delta Quadrant, the tactical cube variant would have never been known to exist at all.

"We are the Borg," the voice of the Collective blared.

"Captain Picard," Kim'Taur bellowed above the other Borg voice as it continued its declaration of assimilation, "You will carry out your mission."

Picard's jaw began to hurt as he realized it had been clenched tightly since the _Enterprise's_ arrival in the Kalanna system. Upon a determined glace back to the viewscreen, Picard defiantly marched to his chair and sat down. In those brief moments, he had decided on a course of action.

"Helm, get us out of here, maximum warp," Picard said as soon as the Borg ended their transmission, "Engineering, this is the captain, give us as much power to the shields and engines as possible. Mister Kardaz, full tactical analysis of both cubes."

Various _Yes Sir_s and _Aye Captain_s were heard as his crew carried out his orders.

"Captain Picard," Kim'Taur sounded more forceful than before, "Lower your shields and transport me to one of the cubes. Comply."

"Commander Kim'Taur," Picard countered with an authoritative voice his own, "The mission is over. Starfleet couldn't have anticipated two Borg ships here, let alone a tactical cube. They've already got the _Yamato_ and I will not allow the _Enterprise _to fall to them as well in such a manner. It's far too great of a risk now. We must regroup and reconsider our options."

At that moment, Kim'Taur's mission sub-routine kicked in. He abruptly struck the security officers behind him with two closed firsts, instantly knocking them both out. Before Kardaz could react, he was being thrown over his station by the Borg commando. Kim'Taur immediately circumvented the security measures at Tactical as several oranges beams of phaser fire erupted around him. Even though most of the barrages were hitting their marks, his personal shield was able to absorb the bursts of energy. Just before he could lower the _Enterprise's_ shields, he was struck by a remodulated phaser. The shot passed through his shield and struck his left shoulder, propelling him back a few steps. Kim'Taur acquired the shooter based on trajectory of the blast. It was Captain Picard. Showing no mercy for the veteran captain, Kim'Taur shot Picard with his wrist-mounted weapon. He quickly stepped back to Tactical as Picard collapsed to the deck and then lowered the ship's shields. Kim'Taur locked on to the closest Borg ship and just as additional security arrived on the bridge, beamed himself over.


	5. Chapter 4

As soon as Kim'Taur rematerialized, he knew something was wrong. The damage caused by Picard's phaser blast had not yet repaired itself. While he ran an internal diagnostic, he surveyed his surroundings with his optical implant. Indeed, transport was successful as he was onboard one of the cubes, which one exactly was still unknown to him. The corridors were void of any drone activity. All the drones in this section of the ship were in their alcoves focusing the ship's energy on a single task, pursuit of the _Enterprise_ perhaps.

His diagnostic had completed and the results were alarming. The phaser blast had somehow damaged his nanoprobe programming in such a way that they were now operating with minimal efficiency. It greatly hampered his ability to repair himself making the once invincible soldier vulnerable. In addition, Kim'Taur was no longer confident that his nanoprobes could assimilate the Borg nor that they would protect _him_ from being assimilated. His only course of action left in light of the malfunction was to destroy the cube. He needed to penetrate deep inside the cube for his explosive to achieve maximum detonation yield—assuming his impaired nanoprobes could still activate the device. If the device exploded before he was in position, it would only serve to damage the cube at which point the remains would be able to regenerate the hull.

He briskly began walking down the darkened corridor, relying on his optical enhancements to navigate in the night-like setting. Kim'Taur's feet clanked on the metal catwalk beneath him, echoing in the bowels of the ship. He began passing alcoves that lined the corridor on either side of him. Handfuls eventually became dozens once Kim'Taur entered a new section of the ship where the alcoves were double stacked on each other.

He turned the corner when his proximity scans picked up two drones approaching him further down the corridor. Knowing the Borg hadn't yet considered him a threat, Kim'Taur stepped to the side and waited for them to pass. He would certainly cause trouble but only when the timing was right. Within moments, he heard two pairs of feet clanking on the metal grate no more than thirty meters away. He could then see a single laser beam fluttering in the darkness before both drones revealed themselves. One of them appeared to be a standard drone while the other still bore a golden Starfleet uniform with one pip on her collar and far less Borg implantations than the other drone—she was recently assimilated. They both passed Kim'Taur with blank expressions and turned the corner, allowing him to continue forward.

After several minutes of directed wondering, Kim'Taur discovered a scanning hub. If he could determine what the Borg were doing, he'd be in a better position to act against them. At the very least, he'd be able to download the ship's schematics as Starfleet maps of cube ships were blotchy at best. He attempted to gain access by tapping several buttons at the hub but the device was effectively secured. Risking assimilation should his nanoprobes fail, he raised his arm towards the hub before two tubes sprang out from the subcutaneous layer of the back of his hand and injected the interface with his nanoprobes in hopes they will grant him access. Fortunately for his sake, they worked. Security was overridden and tactical data along with the schematics of the cube were transferred into Kim'Taur's memory banks. The information barely had time to be stored, let alone processed, before his proximity alarms were thrown into chaos as the Borg around him came to life and stepped out of their alcoves. Five…Ten…_Thirty-nine_ targets in total coming at Kim'Taur from all directions. The Starfleet drone severed the link with the hub and prepared for battle.

"WE ARE THE BORG," the entire ship seemed to say, "LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS AND PREPARE TO BE ASSIMILATED. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."

"I am Starfleet," Kim'Taur echoed back while he drew two short blades from his femur compartments, "You will adapt to serve me or you will be destroyed. _Resistance is futile_."

Unsurprisingly, the Borg did not stop their emotionless advance. Their servos whirled and their feet clanked on the catwalk beneath them as they closed in. Nearly any other biological life form would be trembling by now in the face of such danger, but not Kim'Taur. His stance was confident, poised to strike and his targeting reticule was already determining the most efficient way to neutralize his foes. When the first drone came within reach, Kim'Taur lashed out like a lion before the Borg drone collapsed after a single, swift slash to the base of his skull. Kim'Taur didn't stop there; he began to eliminate the other drones systematically as well.

To the Human eye, it appeared Kim'Taur would simply approach the enemy drones before they fell in his wake. In actuality though, he was busy unleashing ferocious flurries of swordsmanship upon drone after drone. He stopped only to kick away the occasional drone that got inside his killing arc. Once the blades in his hands became too dull to be used effectively, he dropped them before he grabbed another drone and wrenched his neck, breaking it for an instant death. As that drone fell, he extracted two sets of claw-like, pencil-thin razors from the underside of his wrists and resumed the deadly fray. Between blurs of strikes, Kim'Taur's proximity sensors detected twenty more drones closing in from neighboring corridors.

Had additional drones not joined the fight, Kim'Taur could have easily disposed of the lot in a few more minutes without changing his tactics. However, the frenzy at which he was moving and the power required to slice through various parts of the drones' bodies generated large amounts of stress to his body. Normally, that would be of no concern but his inhibited nanoprobes were struggling to repair the damage being inflicted. In an attempt to compensate for this and to pace himself for the Borg reinforcements, Kim'Taur slowed his movements and opted for less powerful, but still lethal attacks. He was only postponing the inevitable, though, as the physical stress on his inhibited body would only continue to rise.

--

"Code One medical emergency! " Sharra knelt beside her downed captain as Kim'Taur dematerialized behind Tactical. "Medical teams to the bridge!"

"Status report!" Sharra was going to voice those exact words but someone else beat her to them. It was Torlus of all people.

"Maximum warp engaged, Subcommander, both cubes and the _Yamato_ are in pursuit," Moor explained with a noticeable tremor in his voice. He was one of the officers that had no previous battle experience and now, during his christening of fire, he was facing two Borg cubes—one of which was a Tactical cube—_as well_ as the assimilated _Yamato._ Three Borg ships scared the latinum right out of him. He suddenly wished he had accepted the job posting at Quark's on Deep Space Nine. At least there, he would have only had to deal with the occasional intoxicated Klingon, according to Quark.

"S-shields holding," Kardaz said while he rubbed his sore elbow that he landed on from Kim'Taur's throw, "No, uh, no other casualties reported."

The security officers Kim'Taur struck had awakened and pulled themselves to their feet as Doctor Falai and a few other medical personnel entered the bridge from the turbolift. In addition to a few medical cases, they also toted an anti-grav unit. Once they spotted Picard, the three of them rushed towards their downed captain.

"What happened?" Falai calmly asked, already knowing the answer, as he pulled out his medical tricorder and scanned the captain.

"Phaser blast," was all that Sharra managed to reply as she stepped away to give the medics more room to work. She grew up listening to stories of how the great Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the _Enterprise_ had always saved the day one way or another. He was a legend, not unlike James T. Kirk of her grandmother's generation. It was so inconceivable for her to understand how an invincible legend like Picard could ever be shot. _Or die_.

"Mmm-hmm," Falai responded as though he suddenly became Vulcan, without any emotion. He folded his tricorder and injected Picard with a hypospray. "Get him to Sickbay," the good doctor nodded to his aides before they placed their captain onto the gurney and hauled him away.

"Wait, is he going to be alright?" Sharra called after them.

Falai turned to her and with a warm and wide smile he said, "Captain Picard has been heavily stunned but other than a terrible headache, I expect he'll make a full recovery in three or four days." Commander Sharra opened her mouth to say something but the doctor raised his hand, gesturing for her not to speak before he added, "I know, I'll keep him in observation as long as possible but you know the captain. He's not going to stay long once he wakes up. Doctor Crusher has thoroughly briefed me on the captain's, eh, _distain_ for Sickbays." With that Falai smiled and turned to the turbolift before walking away to join his staff already waiting for him.

"Commander," Torlus seethed through his teeth upon sitting down in Sharra's normal seat, "As much as I as a Romulan appreciate melodramatics, need I remind you of our aft problem!?"

Sharra absolutely despised that snide and angry tone the Romulan always took, especially to her. Choosing to ignore it for the time being, Sharra sat down in the captain's chair and refocused her attention to the Borg. "Bridge to Engineering."

"_Won here, Commander._"

"Commander," she coolly asked, "How long can you maintain this velocity?"

"_An hour, two at best if I coax her."_

"Do whatever you can to maintain speed, hell, increase it if you can. I'd even get out and start pushing if it came down to it."

There was a slight pause before Won replied with a textbook military address to a superior officer regardless of her gender, "_Aye Sir_."

"Where's that tactical analysis, Kardaz?" Sharra impatiently asked while she noted the temporary change of command in the ship's log.

"Oh uh…" Kardaz had forgotten all about the analysis in the chaos. He tapped his consol and the results were displayed. "The _Yamato_ has aft torpedoes and-and, uh, limited, _very_ limited phaser capabilities on her s-stardrive section. Her s-shields are-are offline and s-structural integrity is compromised but s-slowly regenerating. And uh, the black cube seems to have a s-similar configuration to the cube encountered at J25 with, well ah, with s-several gravimetric torpedo bays and-and dozens of cutting beams. As for the tactical cube, Commander, well, y-your guess is as good as mine. Sir. Ah, Ma'am. I mean _Commander_. Th-that silver hull is, ah, well its blocking my scans with s-some sort of-of a-a-an electromagnetic field. I ah, I can't find any weapon ports whatsoever."

Sharra sighed to herself; that felt like getting teeth pulled out. Kardaz might be the best shot this side of the galaxy but he needed to get a grip on his anxiety when it came to communicating with others, especially during critical moments like these.

The ensign at Helm half-turned his head and stated, "Commander, they're increasing speed."

_Damn,_ she thought before actually voicing, "I want options and I want them now."

--

In Main Engineering, Chen Won let his shoulders sag and glared hopelessly at the ceiling with Sharra's orders. _Maintaining maximum warp was one thing but to _increase_ speed? Has the woman gone mad? The ship wasn't designed to go so fast over such long periods of time._ He quietly sighed and replied, "Aye Sir."

He tapped his combadge to end the transmission before he quickly sighed once more. No one said life as an engineer would be easy. As a surge of adrenaline rushed through his body with the confrontation of a new challenge, he clapped his hands to grab the other engineers and technicians' attention. Once his crew was looking at him, he forcefully stated, "Alright ladies and gentlemen, you heard the commander. Let's make the impossible possible.

"First, I would like Delta Team to find ways to maintain maximum warp for longer than two hours. That will be absolute priority so whoever you need to make that happen, get them out of bed, drag them out of Ten-Forward, I do not care. Just get them here.

"In the meantime, I want Alpha Team to reconfigure the Dilithium Matrix to within point-one microns—find a way to make that happen without causing a microfracture; that's the last thing I want to deal with right now.

"Bravo Team's on power amplification and redirection. I want every scrap of power you can scrounge up just don't cause a breech and melt down our engines.

"Gamma Team is with me; let's find a way to boost structural integrity so that we don't fly out of here only to be ripped apart from the friction of the warp field."

He paused as his people acknowledged their orders but before they could get to work, he jokingly added to take some tension away from everyone, "And in the name of Utopia Planetia, don't confuse a hyperspanner with a coil scanner."

There were scattered, nervous laughs before people moved into action. As Won leaned on a consol that displayed the specs for the integrity field, he couldn't help but realize a momentous occasion will happen very soon with any luck. Assuming his efforts were successful, he'd be joining the fellowship of elite engineers that have overcome similar impossible challenges on their own ships. Montgomery Scott. Miles O'Brien. B'Elanna Torres. And of course, Geordi La Forge, his mentor and predecessor on the _Enterprise. La Forge would be proud. _It would be moot of course if he couldn't outrun the Borg, so he focused entirely on the task before him. He knew Sharra didn't technically order an increase in speed but given the _Enterprise_'s record in similar situations, he knew it wouldn't hurt to have that option available.

--

On board the Borg ship, Kim'Taur had finally eliminated all targets in this section of the ship save one. He decided he needed to test his ability to assimilate the Borg as the stress on his body would eventually become too great for him to adequately deal with the rest of the Borg on board by himself. He retracted his claw blades and closed in on the enemy drone with a slight limp as the hydraulics in his legs began to fail.

The drone marched forward until the two of them got close enough to attack the other. Kim'Taur jolted forward with some reserve power as the drone swung his mechanical assimilation arm attempting to knock Kim'Taur away. Kim'Taur had anticipated that and easily deflected the potential blow before he lunged for the drone's exposed necrotic neck. As soon as his fist was in range, his assimilation tubules shot into the Borg's flesh and nanoprobes were introduced into the drone's system. Immediately, he could sense the Borg's own nanoprobes being transmitted through the same link while both bodies attempted to fight the foreign microscopic robots.

The tingling sensation quickly transformed into discomfort and then into sheer pain. Kim'Taur attempted to retract the tubules but they had been assimilated by the Borg and he was essentially conjoined with the drone. The Starfleet drone trigged the claw blades to emerge from his free hand and then mercilessly sliced through the tubules as he gasped in agony at both the lingering throbs of pain and the wretched jolt of damage he inflicted upon himself. Immediately, the link was severed and both drones stumbled backwards while their systems practically went into shock from the mutual transfer of the nanoprobes.

The Starfleet drone realized he had blacked out when his biological eye slowly opened some time after the assimilation battle with the drone. His heads-up display was clearly malfunctioning now as his enhanced vision was flickering uncontrollably. After a few moments of staring blankly at a support strut above him, he remembered where he was and that he was laying on his back. He abruptly sat up only to find a Borg drone standing motionless at his feet, slouching if ever so slightly. Upon sensing the drone was currently deactivated, Kim'Taur stood up and holstered his rifles that had dropped in the fall while quickly performing a self-diagnostic.

His nanoprobes were somewhat successful in halting the enemy drone's nanoprobes from complete assimilation. However, his body was now saturated with 30% of the enemy's nanoprobes. They were being suppressed by his system but if enough Borg attempted to assimilate him, they would overwhelm his system and he would certainly become part of the Collective. It was curious that his interaction with the scanning hub had not produced similar results as it too should have contained nanoprobes.

Kim'Taur considered the lone Borg for a moment before stating, "You are formidable opponents." With his claw blades exposed once more, he had intended to finish the drone off before it suddenly straightened up and spoke.

"We are formidable opponents," the drone echoed.

Kim'Taur's head tilted in the equivalent of a machine curiosity and asked, "State your designation."

"Error. Designation unknown."

Again, Kim'Taur's head tilted quickly, "I am Commander Renny Kim'Taur, Tertiary Adjunct of Starfleet Unimatrix Five-Three. You are now One, of Starfleet Unimatrix Five-Three. State your designation."

"We are One," the drone strummed, "of Starfleet Unimatrix Five-Three."

"You will adapt to serve me," Kim'Taur bellowed while his optical array continued to malfunction. There was clear hesitation in the drone before Kim'Taur added, "You will comply."

"…We will adapt to serve Commander Renny Kim'Taur. We will comply."

Kim'Taur was grateful he could still assimilate the Borg as originally planned; destroying the _Enterprise_ would have been a waste as the Borg ship needed to be studied. There was still a chance he could take over the entire ship so that Earth could be assimilated and studied. He suddenly became aware of his thoughts that seemed wrong and immediately attempted to recall his exact orders.

"Assimilate…The Borg. Protect…Protect _Enterprise_. Protect Earth?" Something didn't seem right yet self-diagnostics revealed no issues with his mission subroutine. He trusted his instruments and continued to process his tactical objectives and limitations. He could only attempt assimilation on two or three more drones at most before their nanoprobes overpowered his own. Not to mention the extra damage inflicted on himself during the process. This first assimilation had affected his optical array. Would the next affect his enhanced strength or his combat subroutines? Would the drone he assimilated be able to assimilate others? Of course, there was always the possibility that the Federation wanted all that to go wrong. That this was nothing more than an elaborate suicide mission to entertain the Starfleet High Council on Qo'noS. No, there is no Starfleet High Council. Starfleet _Command_ is on Earth, in San Francisco.

"You will follow," Kim'Taur eventually uttered to One before staggering down the corridor, pushing further into the depths of the cube, choosing to ignore the strange manifestations in his subroutine.

"We will follow," One affirmed and fell in line behind Kim'Taur.

Little did Kim'Taur know, his self-diagnostic had been affected by the drone now known as One. It should have revealed that his system was actually saturated with the Borg nanoprobes. However, upon transference, the foreign nanoprobes had assimilated Kim'Taur's faulty ones and as a result, they too became inhibited inside Kim'Taur. Regardless though, they were still assimilating Kim'Taur, only at a significantly reduced rate than what they would normally operate at. The micro-attack had already tampered with the commander's mission parameters and objectives, making a once clear-cut mission into nothing more than a dreary fog of confusion and paranoia.


	6. Chapter 5

"You really need to stop getting shot, Jean-Luc, it's bad for your health."

_Damn_. Picard thought, _Not him, not now_. He didn't need to open his eyes to know that snide voice. He was content with lying motionless in hopes his long-time adversary would simply just leave.

"You can stop playing, _Mon Capitaine,_ I know you're conscious."

Picard grudgingly opened his eyes before he squinted in the all-too familiar, incredibly bright environment void of everything but the ominous white. With a weary sigh, the captain simply uttered, "Q."

"Ahh, no hugs and kisses for your ole chum?" Q replied in his ever-sarcastic tone.

Picard's eyes stung from the room-like place Q had taken him to numerous times before. He knew there was no escape, but he nevertheless stood up and looked around him, purposely putting his back to Q whom bore an older red uniform with captain insignia.

"Hmm, I see Starfleet uniforms changed. _Again_. I tell you, Jean-Luc, it's so hard for an omnipotent being to keep up with the latest fashion trends nowadays." Q snapped his fingers and instantly mimicked Picard's charcoal tunic.

Picard's jaw tightened, growing increasingly impatient with Q the troublemaker, the proverbial thorn always in his side. Now that his eyes were beginning to adjust to the brightness, Picard gazed endlessly into the void, again sighing to himself.

"Oh right, I forgot how sensitive your mortal eyes are," Q snapped his fingers again before 20th Century aviator glasses appeared over Picard's eyes. Picard spun around to face the omnipotent entity as he whipped off the darkened glasses.

"Enough of this foolishness, Q! Why must you continue to meddle in our affairs? You have brought nothing but mischief and peril since you first appeared on my ship at Farpoint Station!"

"Oh come now, Jean-Luc," Q grinned, "Can't your dearly beloved friend stop by to say hi once in a while? It's been how long since our last tea party? Far too many of your depressingly ho-hum years, I'm sure."

"Q!" Picard roared, beckoning him to say his business and be done with it.

Q's grin faded into a slight frown before he spoke, "I see you've become like Admiral Janeway in your old age—crabby as a Klingon, fuming as a Nausicaan. Very well, Jean-Luc, if you want to skip the pleasantries, so be it."

Q transformed into the red and black robes he dawned during his first encounter with Picard when Q put him on trial for the crimes of humanity. A thrown appeared quickly thereafter and once Q sat down in it, it hovered several feet into the air so that Q was now looking down at Picard.

"I'm not here as your confident, Picard, I'm here as an official representative of the Q Continuum. You have set forth a series of events that will change the universe in an infinite number of ways. You've unknowingly killed millions of not beings, but _species_. Millions of species throughout the galaxy and beyond. You are responsible for creating an Empire so great that even the Q cannot stop."

Picard's brow angled downwards as he attempted to understand what Q was telling him. _Even the Q cannot stop? Surely, that's more of Q's doublespeak. Is it not so? _"Q, to what are you referring?"

"Jean-Luc," Q coyly scolded, "You know exactly what."

_Indeed I do,_ Picard suddenly realized what Q was referring to but didn't bother to voice it. Instantly afterward, there was a flash of light and Q now bore a striking appearance to Commander Kim'Taur, confirming his revelation.

"This Borg of yours," Q said with the infamous Borg voice, "It's going to reap havoc, eventually spreading its chaos far into the depths of the universe. Resistance will be futile."

Q smirked as he raised an arm in a mock assimilation gesture.

"I did not create the drone," Picard calmly protested, hardly intimidated by Q's new Borg-like appearance, "Nor did I approve of its deployment.

"Yes, yes, Jean-Luc, I know that," Q still maintained the illusion of a drone but he no longer spoke with the mechanical echoes and instead in his usual voice, "You did, however, shoot the thing. The damage you caused essentially made the drone go…Oh I don't know how you Humans put it…Insane, maybe. Instead of only seeing the Borg as its enemy, it eventually considered everyone _else_ an enemy. Even the most simplistic single-celled organism was a foe to this creature."

The white void was replaced by the depths of space. As Picard shook off the initial disorientating effect of the sudden change in scenery, he saw an armada of Borg cubes engaging what appeared to be a Federation colony. It as well as the rest of the planet was quickly destroyed before other images of destruction began flashing before him.

Q waited for a cube traveling close to them to pass beneath them before he continued his explanation. "It was only until the creature had enslaved the Borg and began attacking Federation outposts and planets when the true threat was fully realized. By then, it was too late of course. The creature had already forged a massive army and had adapted to the point that no mere mortal weapon could stop them."

Instead of colonies, a large Federation fleet had been amassed and was methodically being destroyed before Picard's eyes, ship by ship. He could easily tell their weapons were not having any affect on the cubes. It seemed like the battle of Wolf 359 all over again, only a thousand times worse. Picard's heart skipped a beat when he witnessed the destruction of the _Enterprise_, Starfleet's flagship_._ If that wasn't bad enough, he immediately recognized the system where the battle was taking place—Sector 001, _Earth_. Once the remainder of the fleet was destroyed, the cubes moved into a geosynchronous orbit and opened fire on the lush blue, green and white planet. Within moments, the Federation headquarters was decimated from a blinding barrage from Kim'Taur's ships and chunks of the planet were jettisoned outward, some slamming into the lunar colonies which were also destroyed as a result.

"Not long after your precious Federation fell," Q coyly said, "the rest of the Alpha Quadrant was destroyed, then the Dominion, and then, Jean-Luc, they somehow learned to gain access to the Q Continuum and targeted _us._ For the first time in our supple history, we went to war with a foreign force. Can you even fathom war on such a scale? Trust me, Jean-Luc, it's well beyond biblical proportions. For twenty millennia, the Q were able to hold them at bay, preventing them from achieving absolute victory in the continuum."

Q transported them back to the white void, with Q still wearing his Borg-like appearance.

"Then one day, they adapted. Even with our collective omnipotence, the Q could no longer stop the Army of Unimatrix Five-Three. Before the continuum was destroyed, we were able to concentrate our power to send one of us far back in time through the intra-dimensional rift to try to stop it all from happening. So here I am. Your _savior_."

As Q deviously relished the ego-boosting thought, Picard tugged on his tunic and looked away while he considered Q's words.

"You don't believe me, do you Jean-Luc?" Q somberly asked after a moment upon changing back into his Starfleet form.

Picard looked up with a poker face similar to one Will Riker might have used and countered, "Why now? Why not when Kim'Taur was created? Or when he was still on the _Yamato_?"

"Intra-dimensional temporal physics are no longer an exact science when one's reality is on the verge of being annihilated," Q stated with surprisingly defensive inflections in his voice, "And no, I can't contact the continuum in this timeline for reasons that are far too complicated for your primitive mind to comprehend."

"If it has become such a problem, then why have you brought me here when you can just as easily deal with Commander Kim'Taur now?" The captain's face remained blank, void of all emotion and intention—a difficult if not impossible face to read whatsoever, perhaps partly why he had been such a successful diplomat in the past.

"For further complicated reasons," Q resentfully explained, "my powers are rather limited in this dimension. All I can essentially do is a few parlor tricks and offer my sage wisdom to you, _Mon Capitaine_, and hope that you respond accordingly."

Jean-Luc Picard rubbed the back of his neck and then actually had the gall to break his poker face by laughing for a few moments. On rare occasions, it's appropriate just to bow to the absurd. This was one of those times, the other instance when chickens and pigs invaded the other _Enterprise_ some time ago. He immediately composed himself and Picard half-waved at Q and with resignation asked, "Alright, Q. What do you advise? Before you answer, be forewarned that this had better not be another of your games for I nor my crew will be any party to it."

"Scout's honor," Q rolled his eyes before he glared at Picard with absolute seriousness. "The Borg ships chasing your _Enterprise_ will soon drop out of warp. When they do, you must do the same and engage them instead of running back to mommy with your tail tucked between your legs. You must find and destroy that drone, Kim'Taur, by any means possible. I mean it, Jean-Luc. If you fail, then you've unleashed Armageddon onto us all."

"I'm going to need help," Picard reasoned, "even the _Enterprise_ won't be able to effectively combat both cubes and the assimilated _Yamato_."

Q sighed impatiently before he snapped his fingers and several people Picard never would have expected to see. The white void erupted with surprise and confusion.

"Jean-Luc!" Doctor Crusher shouted with glee as soon as her eyes saw her former captain.

"What the hell?" Captain William T. Riker immediately asked as he glanced at her and then the others.

"Captain?" Geordi La Forge also chimed before he noticed Q and uttered, "Uh-oh."

All the while Ambassador Worf had narrowed his eyes and growled at Q's presence, no doubt envisioning all the ways he should kill the entity where he stood—if such a feat was even possible.

With the exception of Deanna Troi-Riker and Wesley Crusher, Picard's entire legendary senior staff now stood before him. Even…

"Mister Data!" Picard stepped forward in shook as a tear nearly fell from his eye.

The resurrected Data inquisitively turned his head in slight but jerky movements, analyzing his environment and Picard. Finally, he acknowledged, "Captain," and with one more head jerk as he looked down at his body, he uttered, "Curious."

"There, Jean-Luc," Q changed his appearance into a full battle dress uniform Picard recognized as the very same flamboyant uniform General Patton had worn in World War II, "You have your reinforcements, soldier. Now it's time to punch some fascist Borg's nose and march onward to victory with the eyes of freedom loving people everywhere marching with you."

Q clicked his knee-length jackboots together and brought a cigar to his grinning mouth before he saluted and added, "Talk amongst yourselves for a solution, kids, Daddy will be right back."

With that, Q disappeared leaving the longtime friends alone in the ominous white void. As a final courtesy, Q recreated the long, black observation lounge table complete with chairs to encourage the officers to think through the issue at hand like the countless times they've had in the past.

Q's head reappeared just long enough to add, "Oh and don't let the Klingon drool on the table, I just had it polished."

Worf's fury escalated but before he reacted further, Q disappeared and Picard quickly spoke.

"It's nice to see all of you again," Picard gleamed at his friends, especially at Commander Data, before he sighed and said, "We have a problem."

--

"Wait, what?" Kardaz whispered into the comm, attempting to keep his disbelief quiet while on the bridge.

"_Captain Picard isn't in my sickbay_," Doctor Falai repeated, "_I looked away for just a moment, you see, only to find he eh…_Disappeared_."_

Kardaz's eyes bulged slightly at the thought of losing his own captain during his shift on Tactical and head of Security. He immediately ran a scan for both the captain's combadge and bio-signature. When both had no results, he quietly uttered, "Uh-oh."

Commander Sharra was hunched over a science station and when she heard Kardaz's remark, she looked behind her and forcefully asked what was wrong.

Kardaz feverishly checked and rechecked his scans while he nervously responded, "Uh…Commander, I, ah, I mean the-the captain isn't on board the ship. No c-combadge or bio-ID."

"What? Are the shuttlecraft accounted for?" Sharra asked and made her way to the command chair.

"Yes, Commander."

"Any transporter activity?" Sharra looked to Moor.

"None, shields are still up and the internal site-to-sites' controls are still restricted to the bridge per protocol," the Ferengi stated as the red, combat lighting gently reflected off his oversized head.

"As improbable as it sounds, scan the Borg ships for him, maybe they found a new way for matter transport," Sharra punched a few buttons at her side double-checking the internal scans. She trusted the crew but it gave her comfort to see for herself.

"Scans are inconclusive, Commander."

"Mister Kardaz," Sharra hissed, "Status of the Borg?"

"Uh, th-the cubes are, ah, they're still behind us, but they seem to topping at um, Warp-Warp nine point…point five one. We're holding at nine point five. At present speed, ah, time to intercept is about fifty…fifty minutes. The _Yamato_ is lagging behind at Warp nine but it's slowly increasing speed. I-I estimate it'll catch up in a-a little over an hour. Or so."

Sharra grinded her teeth together before she muttered, "Bridge to Engineering."

"_Commander this really isn't a good time, we're pretty busy down here,_" Won replied over the intercom.

"How's it coming down there?"

"_We'll be able to give you maximum warp for an extra hour as it stands right now."_

"Good. You've just bought yourself another hour to find a way to give us more speed. We've got to put some space between us and the Borg. I know I'm asking the impossible, Won, but—"

"—_Commander I can give you a five percent speed increase in thirty minutes!"_ The engineer had beamed proudly.

Taken aback by her newfound miracle worker, she decisively nodded and affirmed, "Do it."

"Commander, what about the captain?" Jillani calmly asked.

Sharra briefly wondered how long had she been on the bridge. Dismissing her thoughts, Sharra stated as if she was reading from a PADD, "Starfleet Order 104 Section B, Paragraph 1-A reads in the absence of a starship's assigned captain, a flag officer or the XO has the authority to assume command of the starship should he deem it necessary. In light of the circumstances, Captain Picard, as far as I'm concerned, is dead as we cannot devote resources finding him as long as the Borg are in hot pursuit."

Jillani's hairless eyebrows arched upwards at the bluntness of Sharra's explanation. Still, she supported the commander's decision. While it may not be the moral choice, it was the only choice mandated by the books.

--

Kim'Taur hobbled through the darkened corridor with the rehabilitated drone following close behind. His body continued to degrade even though combat had ceased and his mind raced with spiteful but confused thoughts.

_The Starfleet dogs must have conspired from the start to sabotage myself for their own twisted pleasure. Picard was in on it as well. My own people were too. They all were. When I destroy this ship, the _Enterprise, _I'm going to kill the Borg responsible for this mission. First I will destroy this ship then I will assimilate it. Then I will be escorted by Picard to Vulcan to assimilate the Borg there per orders of Starfleet. What was that?_

Kim'Taur stopped at an intersection and looked to his right. He thought he had heard something down that corridor but there was nothing there. When he turned his head back to his front, he was seeing Master Satik, his former Vulcan training master, shrouded in the shadows of a humble robe standing before him. Knowing it was impossible for him to be here, Kim'Taur slashed at the figure with his forearm scythes believing him to be a threat. The figure did not fall though.

Before Kim'Taur could try again, Satik grabbed the edge of the hood with both hands and pulled it down, exposing his aged but still intimidating face and pointed ears. Satik began to speak with a slight rattle in his centuries-old voice, "Greetings, Apprentice."

"You are not real." Kim'Taur declared and fired several shots from his wrist-mounted phaser. All the bolts of energy passed harmlessly through the figure before him.

"'I think therefore I am,' Descartes, an ancient Earth philosopher."

"Irrelevant," Kim'Taur scolded, "State your designation and purpose before I find a way to destroy you."

"I find that highly inconceivable," the entity coldly explained, "when you know I am but a part of your subconscious mind. To kill me is to kill yourself, Apprentice. I am here to convince you that your emotions have clouded your judgment."

"Irrelevant, I am incapable of experiencing emotion," Kim'Taur said as he stepped through the projection and continued down the corridor. To his surprise, the entity was now following him while One was completely oblivious to the fact.

"Needless to say," the elder Vulcan folded his hands into a meditative state and persisted, "Something is wrong, young one. Can you not see it for yourself? You have lost focus, your mind is in disarray. You are not even aware of the forcefield that has been enabled to block your path."

Kim'Taur suddenly walked into a shimmering forcefield. Satik, or whatever the entity was, may be right. He should have seen the force field enabled long before he walked into it. The commando attempted to walk through it once more but he found it extremely difficult to pass through. Turning to One, Kim'Taur resonated, "You will disable the forcefield."

"We will comply," One then effortlessly passed through the shimmer, continued down the hall and turned at an immediate junction.

Now turning to Satik, Kim'Taur ordered, "You will leave me be and you will not return. I have a mission to complete."

Satik's eyebrow arched upwards before he asked, "What mission is that?"

The laser on Kim'Taur's head danced wildly for a moment as he struggled to recall his mission. Finally, he responded. "To…Destroy the Borg."

"Are you sure, young one? Is it logical for a single soldier to eliminate an entire race by himself?

Kim'Taur heard metallic footfalls behind Satik and slowly focused on the approaching enemy. With a final look to Satik, he said, "Battle awaits me. I will deal with you and your conspirators later."

With that, Satik vanished from view and Kim'Taur grabbed his Tetryon rifle and took a defensive stance. Now that he needed to conserve as much energy as possible, he felt the rifle would be a good choice. He waited for the Borg to come a few steps closer.

Before long, he opened up with a rapid barrage of charged green energy—one of the few elemental weapons which the Borg had difficulties adapting to. The weapon was inspired by the weapon Hirogen hunting parties carried when _Voyager_ encountered them in the Delta Quadrant. Though the Hirogen model was mostly a scare device designed to flush out prey, it proved to be a formidable weapon after several Federation modifications. It was more compact and thus lighter for its shooter to use and tote around. The weapon's fire rate was significantly reduced to improve accuracy as well as to accommodate a larger power output. Another modification was a standard on all Federation side arms: the stun and kill duel settings as Starfleet maintained the position that all issued arms were to be mainly used as defensive tools where lethal force may not always be needed.

Kim'Taur had no such reservations. His weapon was set to kill. Despite his malfunctioning targeting abilities, Kim'Taur was still finding his targets. It wasn't long before Borg drones were stumbling over their fallen as they attempted to advance towards Kim'Taur. Many of which were gunned down. Suddenly, the rifle started to glow a pasty white that was dim at first but gradually increased in luster. Kim'Taur's hands began sizzling at the peak of the weapon's intensifying glow. One of the unfortunate side-effects to the Tetryon rifle yet to be improved was the rate at which the weapon overheated. Once it had been continuously fired for forty seconds, it would cause third degree burns long before the burning sensation registered with the user. Kim'Taur was able to endure an intense _sixty-eight_ seconds before the gun ceased to function whatsoever as many of its components had melted.

The Borg maintained their advance and quickly moved in now that the weapon previously holding them back was inoperable. Despite some of his own components in his hands beginning to melt, Kim'Taur grasped the white-hot weapon like a club and started swinging away. The butt of the rifle first smashed into one of the Borg's pale skull. Both the extreme heat and the force of the impact fell the drone in one swift motion. The end of the rifle continued in a slicing motion towards another drone nearby, also causing him to cease operation.

Finally, Kim'Taur threw the heat-singed weapon at another drone's head. As it bounced off, the drone collapsed and Kim'Taur reached for another weapon attached to his other shoulder blade. His hand-eye coordination was hindered and the weapon merely dangled at his fingertips. He stretched again for it and just when he was about to wrap his fingers around the second rifle, he had to turn his attention to a Borg drone that had nearly injected him with assimilation tubules. Kim'Taur grabbed the drone's arms and engaged in a mutual test of strength—servo verses servo, muscle verses muscle.

With Kim'Taur's malfunctions, they were equally matched. Still, Kim'Taur managed to turn 90 degrees to his left and delivered a forceful sidekick to another drone approaching him. His center of gravity had changed during the maneuver, allowing the Borg drone to push the commander hard into the bulkhead. Now effectively pinned, the other drones were closing in for assimilation. Kim'Taur crashed his chin into his chest plate, causing a small but deadly sliver projectile to be launched from a tiny compartment hidden in Kim'Taur's optical implant. The projectile pierced the skull and the Borg drone toppled over.

Kim'Taur was then able to grab his other weapon, a heavily modified Federation phaser rifle, and fired silver-orange beams of energy haphazardly into the crowd of Borg drones. It wasn't long before he realized the forcefield had gone down so he shot a path towards the corridor and took off in a half sprint shuffle down the opened corridor. He heard additional drones stepping out of their alcoves to join the others. Kim'Taur wasn't afraid though. He was incapable of feeling such irrelevant emotions.

"You will assimilate the Borg." Kim'Taur firmly stated as he passed One with his shuffle quickly turning into a stagger. The strength battle had greatly affected his systems and they were rapidly degenerating into complete inoperativeness.

"We will comply, we will assimilate the Borg." One immediately began walking towards Kim'Taur's pursuers with a blank but determined look.

"Oh?" Satik reappeared and remained at Kim'Taur's left, "That drone follower of yours will not be assimilating anything, Apprentice, he is far too outnumbered."

"I told you to leave me be," Kim'Taur blared as he hobbled further down the corridor, "Comply."

"Logic dictates you abort your mission and return to the _Enterprise_. You are not well. You're about to collapse, young one."

The Starfleet drone had just rounded the corner when he fell to the metal grate as Satik had said he would. His tactical heads up display had gone completely offline and his servos in his legs had experienced a power surge; they too became unresponsive.

There were more heavy footfalls ahead and when Kim'Taur strained to look, four Borg drones were approaching him, their lasers bouncing in the darkness with every stride. The commander struggled to reach the rifle he had dropped which lay just out of his reach. The drones were nearly on top of him before he gave up on the rifle and instead activated his wrist-mounted phaser. Kim'Taur fired arbitrarily and had it not been for their close proximity, he wouldn't have been able to hit any of them. Two of the four drones were brought down before the others adapted to his weapon. He tried to slice at them with his forearm scythes but he was at a bad angle and wasn't able to score any critical hits.

Kim'Taur immediately ran his emergency subroutine to bypass the damages enough so that he could properly defend himself. The moment he triggered the alternate programming, his system alerted him to the fact that the subroutines had been corrupted, along with the self-diagnostics. It was too late though. Before Kim'Taur could abort the process, the subroutine routed itself deep into Kim'Taur's system like a viral agent spreading itself with no small part from the host's own circulatory system. The corrupted program seized control of all voluntary actions while simultaneously erasing his current mission orders.

Knowing that if his parameters changed, he may not be able to bring his conspirators to justice, he attempted to encrypt the parameters in a protected storage site in memory—a backup of sorts. The emergency subroutines were too efficient for their own good and rapidly infiltrated his active memory. They erased the mission parameters and did so while Kim'Taur was still in the process of transferring them. Unable to determine if the transfer was complete, Kim'Taur abruptly shut down as the subroutine completed its manifestation all the while he was injected by two sets of Borg assimilation tubules.

Kim'Taur's system eventually rebooted with the changes made by the corrupt program. His biological eye shot open and he found that he was alone in the darkened corridor. A self-diagnostic revealed that the program had completely altered him. It was as though he was a blank slate with few previous memories and no orders. The program had also altered his nanoprobe programming in such a way that they had increased in efficiency. Though they were not back to their original state, the efficiency increase was marginal enough to trigger minor repairs on Kim'Taur. Additionally, his body was highly contaminated with foreign nanoprobes that were slowly being destroyed by his own system.

While his body was slowly being regenerated by the reformed nanoprobes, Kim'Taur sifted through his protected memory for traces of who he or what his purpose was. While the intimate details were unknown, he did discover he was generally intended for combat—a large chunk of his memory was devoted specifically for combat related feats and tactics from a magnitude of species. Though he could not identify which species he served, he found that he was part of an entity known as Unimatrix Five-Three. Suddenly, his neural net directed him to a location in memory entitled 'General Order One' and accessed new mission parameters:

_Disobey all orders from Starfleet officers._

_Disregard the law of the land._

_Destroy all life._


	7. Chapter 6

Captain Picard folded his hands and supported his chin with his thumbs, listening to the ideas of his colleagues, still intrigued by their forced but welcoming appearance from Q. After he had briefed them on the situation, they accepted it in stride and worked towards an answer—just like old times.

"Back at the S.C.E.," La Forge's advanced ocular enhancements that had replaced his VISOR glistened in the white void, "I managed to glance over some schematics for a neural network Starfleet started working with. At the time, I thought they were Data's and didn't think much of them but now, I bet those schematics were actually Kim'Taur's. If I'm right, then Kim'Taur and Data's neural pathways are virtually identical to each other and we could probably modify a tricorder to disrupt Kim'Taur's neural net, exactly what we did with Data during the Ba'Ku incident."

"Interesting point, Geordi," Data's artificial eyebrows flinched upwards and his head turned sideways mimicking a human expression of disagreement. This representation of Commander Data or whatever he was appeared to have been created after Data's emotion chip had been removed. He could only attempt to recreate human emotion rather than the authentic emotions the technology gave him. Although, considering he should be dead, it was still a wonder at all. Without missing a beat, the android delivered a counter point, "However it seems Commander Kim'Taur is not an android but a cyborg. Thus his positronic relays would be interlaced with biological tissue and may not be able to be disrupted in the same manner as that of my own regardless of the similarities in our neurotics."

Riker scratched his beard and stated, "Captain, I'll lead an away team to the cube. We'll locate Kim'Taur and we'll take him down with phasers or a couple photon grenades."

"I will go as well," Worf boomed and nodded at Riker. When he returned the nod, they both looked to Picard for approval.

He removed his hands from his face and tensely replied, "That may very well be an option, Number—" Picard caught himself, remembering who Riker was now, "_Captain,_ but Kim'Taur has been specifically designed to combat the Borg. He has been heavily modified to resist them, which by definition would include resisting _us_ as well. His technology aside, his tactical prowess is unparalleled, Mister Worf, I'm sure even you can attest to that."

"Yes," Worf grunted before he added, "Kim'Taur is a skilled warrior, but even Kahless, the greatest of all Klingons, was eventually killed. Kim'Taur, as Kahless, will be defeated."

"Mm," Picard slowly nodded, "We shall reserve a direct confrontation as a last resort. Though malfunctioning, Commander Kim'Taur is still a Starfleet officer and we must deal with him as such until all other options have been exhausted."

Picard glanced at Beverly as she tucked a stray lock of red hair behind her ear before she said, "Well, Data's right, Kim'Taur _is_ a cyborg. If we can immobilize the biological half, the machine could also be stopped. We know that has worked for dealing with the Borg in the past."

"That's true," La Forge replied, "but the thing is, Commander Kim'Taur is much more advanced than any Borg I've seen. We have to assume that his mechanics will be able to resuscitate his organic half, I mean if I wanted to build a super soldier whose sole mission is to fight the Borg, I'd want to make sure he can heal himself no matter what. The same holds true for the opposite. While I'm no expert in Breen physiology, I would also assume the organic part can still function if the machine cannot, even if only on a most basic level for a limited amount of time, but it could still be enough to make any self repairs. With the Borg, yes, if you eradicate the organics, the rest of the machine ceases to function and vise versa given the organic dependence on the Borg machine after assimilation, but I really don't think it'd work for the commander."

After all the years they've served with each other, not only did they all know what each other was thinking, but also that they were all starting to think of the same idea. It was clear on their faces, even Data's. Regardless, Doctor Crusher's face slowly lit up as she voiced the thought everyone was now considering. "So we need to attack both the biological _and_ mechanical parts at the same time to be sure that we can immobilize Kim'Taur?"

"Yeah, we gotta take them both out," La Forge's mind started to race with ideas on how to accomplish what Beverly was eventually going to suggest.

"Data," the doctor beamed, "Would it be possible to modify a tricorder in such a way that it could disrupt Kim'Taur's neural net while simultaneously affecting the biological tissue in a similar fashion? Maybe a certain harmonic that can be disruptive for both entities?"

After cocking his head slightly as he accessed the appropriate information, Data gently nodded and replied, "Before the Eugenics Wars in the early 20th Century, Khan Noonien Singh experimented with such a concept. His hypothesis suggested that enemy soldiers and vehicles could be incapacitated or disabled with a high resonating, metaphasic frequency."

"What were the findings?" Picard asked, knowing that Data would continue into the irrelevant details if no one intervened.

"The test targets were indeed disrupted—"

"—Excellent!" Doctor Crusher interrupted and smiled, pleased with Data's explanation.

"However," Data blinked at her, "the facility was destroyed in the process. Singh barely escaped with his life."

"Damn," Riker mumbled to himself as Crusher's disappointment spread to him and the others as well. This was turning out to be that one mission everyone feared that could not be reasonably completed. The _Kobayashi Maru_ test all over again, only this was no mere test, it was real.

"And there's no way to counter that energy in a tricorder?" Crusher turned to Geordi with saddened eyes.

"I don't think so, Doctor. Even if I could modify a tricorder in that fashion, there wouldn't be any way to test it without chancing half the ship exploding in the process." Geordi's mind still pondered the situation for a few moments, searching for a different way. Suddenly, it came to him. "Captain, we might be thinking too small here. The tricorders may not be able to handle that kind of modification but the deflector array could channel it. Sure it might blow out every relay on the ship in the process but the ship would still be in one piece and it might just work if we direct all power into the structural integrity field. Warp, impulse, phasers, replicators, it'd take everything we have."

Worf struggled to maintain a neutral tone, "If all power is diverted, the _Enterprise_ would be dead in space. If we were to fail and with no shields, the Borg would be able to easily assimilate the ship and crew."

"Where's that Klingon bravery I've come to admire over the years?" Riker teased as a twinkle appeared in his eye and a wide grin carved its way under his beard.

"Bravery is one thing," the burly ambassador countered, "Tactical errors are suicide."

The captain waited for Worf to turn and look at him, sensing he was going to add something else. Sure enough, Worf looked his way and opened his mouth. "Captain, I recommend giving priority to our defensive systems. If we can reroute power from the shuttlecrafts, we should have enough reserve power for low yield weapons and limited shields. It would be enough."

"Hmm," La Forge said, "I must be off of starships too long, I forgot all about the shuttlecraft. Yeah, the power from those would give us some leeway with the phasers and shields. Great idea, Worf."

Picard crossed his legs and leaned back in the chair, waiting for any other ideas. When there were none, he nodded in approval. "This seems to be our best option at the moment. Beverly, work with Mister La Forge and Mister Data to ensure the modifications to the deflector will affect both Kim'Taur's biological and Borg halves."

As La Forge and Crusher nodded in understanding, Riker spoke up. "Captain, if we can get Q to return me to the _Titan_ I could contact the fleet and get it to converge on your position. If Geordi's device doesn't work, the _Enterprise _is going to need a lot of help as soon as possible."

"If I am taken to Qo'noS," Worf added, "I can attempt to convince the High Council to deploy a fleet of Klingon warships to aid as additional reinforcements."

"Agreed," Picard decisively nodded. He was about to wonder where Q had run off to when there was a flash of light above the conference table. _Speak of the devil._

"Well, _Mon Capitaine,_" Q mused as he stood on the tabletop, looking down at Picard with crossed arms, this time dressed in a Starfleet Admiral's uniform, "Your enemy has set up the game pieces, are you ready to play?"

Picard stood up and briskly tugged on his uniform before he firmly declared, "Yes Q. Take Captain Riker and Ambassador Worf back to the _Titan_ and Qo'noS respectfully. You may take the rest of us back the _Enterprise_."

Q's jaw tightened and with great restrain, Q replied, "You should enjoy giving me orders, Jean-Luc, under normal circumstances I wouldn't have tolerated such behavior from you and I would have turned you into glue for the Klingon to eat."

With a snarl from Worf, Q threw up his arms, transporting everyone out of the white void.

--

_Captain's Log, Stardate 64535.4:_

_Commander Sharra Bii reporting. Nearly thirty minutes ago, Captain Picard disappeared from Sickbay after suffering a phaser blast by that damn Borg drone, Kim'Taur. All scans are negative and all shuttlecraft are accounted for. The Borg ships are still pursuing us and we're still out of range for meaningful communications with Starfleet. I've assumed command of the _Enterprise_ and since have deployed a subspace message to Starfleet. It should arrive in two days and maybe another day for a reply to be picked up by us at present course and speed. I hadn't realized just how isolated the Kalanna system is; perhaps I should spend less time on the holodeck and more time behind a science station. Regardless, I've just been informed the Borg have increased their speed and are closing the gap at an alarming rate. I feel all we can do now is hope Commander Won and Engineering can give us more speed as promised._

"Time?" Sharra nervously asked as she precociously sat in the captain's chair, poised to jump to her feet at the slightest noise.

"The Borg will now overtake us in five minutes," Moor somberly stated as he looked up from his console and watched the Borg ships grow larger on the viewscreen as they closed in. Everyone else on the bridge was also fixated on the same view before them, preparing themselves for the seemingly inevitable confrontation with the Borg.

"Bridge to Commander Won," Sharra strained to mask her impatience from her voice, "Report."

"_Good morning Commander. This is Ensign Jek-Jek speaking. Chief Won is indisposed at the moment. We're making the final adjustments now. Speed boost will occur in ten minutes, Commander." _

"Ten—We don't _have_ ten minutes Ensign! You have four!"

"_I'm terribly sorry, Ma'am. I assure you we are working as fast as possible. If there is nothing else I can help you with, please excuse me as I return to my duties."_

Sharra sighed to herself and cursed the fact that Jek-Jek's people were extremely cordial and courteous by nature, something that always annoyed her. She forcefully acknowledged and closed the channel. At which point, she noticed her fingers were sore and beginning to go numb. Once she looked down, she found her hands clenched tightly around the command chair's armrests. Worse yet, she couldn't release her grip. She also realized that everyone had shifted their gaze to her in search of orders or from her sudden outburst, or both. Panic pulsed through her veins, paralyzing her, clouding her mind. She suddenly knew she wasn't ready for command; she was cracking under the pressure. She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice two flashes of light appear in front of her.

"Report," the familiar bold and confident accented voice boomed.

"Captain! I mean," Moor cleared his throat and continued in a tone more suiting for a Starfleet officer, "Sir, the Borg are about to overtake us in two minutes. Engineering is attempting to give us more speed but they may not have enough time."

"Dispersive s-shields and-and weapons are primed and ready for-for combat," Kardaz reported from Tactical.

Moor's console updated and he immediately added, "Correction Sir, the Borg ships are dropping out of warp!"

"Confirmed," Kardaz's face suddenly turned into a bewildered expression, "Ah…Th-the Borg, Captain, th-they're engaging each other!"

Picard turned to Kardaz with surprise before he looked back at the viewscreen and then at Q whom stood beside him.

"It has begun, Jean-Luc," Q uttered with a chilling element of seriousness in his voice as he stared at Picard, waiting for his first action.

"Helm," Picard ordered without hesitation, "Take us out of warp and bring us about, half impulse."

"Aye Sir! Coming about!"

"Mister Kardaz, shields to maximum and prepare to fire the quantum torpedoes, full spread."

"Yes Sir!"

"What are you doing Picard!? This is our only chance to escape!" Torlus roared as he turned to Q and demanded, "And who in the Praetor's name are you?"

"Not now, Torlus," Picard beckoned. The Romulan was about to protest but Picard cut him off and calmly added, "You can either remain here in silence or spend the rest of the mission in the brig, the choice is yours."

"You wouldn't dare!" Torlus's eyes narrowed as he challenged Picard. The captain didn't even dignify that with a reply. He simply nodded to the pair of security officers that had positioned themselves behind Torlus before they drew their phasers and stepped forward. Fortunately, Torlus got the hint and gritted his teeth as he resentfully walked towards the turbolift with his security escort. Before he stepped inside, he snapped a threatening look at Picard and screamed, "The Tal Shiar will have your head for this Picard! This is a blatant disregard of the conditions of this alliance!"

The captain smirked and coolly replied, "According to the Treaty of Sigma Ceti, the shadow organization of the Tal Shiar was disbanded by the Romulan Senate following the alliance with the Federation. Thank you for informing us it still exists, I'm sure they shall reward you greatly for revealing their existence to us."

Realizing his grave mistake, the anger in Torlus was quickly replaced with sobering worry and self-pity. He sheepishly stepped into the turbolift without any resistance.

"Permission to leave the bridge as well, Captain." Sharra quietly asked as she stood up on wobbly knees. Picard easily recognized her state of shock and nodded and then murmured,

"Granted." As Picard sat down, Sharra vacated the bridge with Jillani following close behind after she shot a cold and piercing look at Q.

Once Picard sat down, Q leaned in and murmured, "Haven't I told you the dangers of having an imp on board masquerading as part of your crew?"

With raised eyebrows Picard bellowed, "We do not have time for this, Q. Now then, would it be safe to assume Kim'Taur's ship is the single ship battling the other two?"

"Very safe," Q stood up and crossed his arms with a visible scorn on his face, no doubt still somehow agitated by Jillani's presence.

"S-sir, the _Yamato_ has just been destroyed," Kardaz said, never bothering to glance up from his tactical readouts.

"Hail the unarmored cube," though unlikely, Picard wanted to try to end this through diplomatic means.

"Kim'Taur is responding, Sir."

"On screen."

Commander Kim'Taur appeared on the screen standing in front of several Borg drones inside a darkened corridor. His red optical laser gently danced in the darkness while his eyepiece glowed with an icy blue color.

"Commander Kim'Taur, this is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the _Enterprise_. You are to stand down and abort your mission immediately. Your life is in grave danger."

"WE ARE THE ARMY OF UNIMATRIX FIVE-THREE," Kim'Taur's lips were moving but instead of his own voice, it was amplified by thousands of drones on board that were speaking in unison. It truly seemed the Borg had been assimilated on that ship with Kim'Taur forging his own collective of the drones. It was a chilling observation. Kim'Taur's head abruptly turned to his right as if someone was interrupting him. Within a blink of an eye, Kim'Taur's wrist-mounted phaser sprang up and fired several shots into something that appeared to be just outside of the range of the viewscreen. He then said to his right, "WE TOLD YOU TO LEAVE US ALONE. WE WILL FIND A WAY TO DESTROY YOU, MASTER."

Picard's brow furrowed slightly as he wondered to whom or what Kim'Taur was speaking while it appeared Kim'Taur continued to have a conversation with whomever or whatever it was.

"NO. NO. WE WILL NOT DESTROY THE BORG. THE BORG ARE OUR SLAVES. NO, WE WILL NOT."

Moor glanced at Picard in disbelief, wondering if he was hearing this as well. The captain's stoic expression confirmed that indeed he was. Picard looked on, committing every word to memory in case it provided some clue as to resolve this matter.

"THE OTHERS? THERE ARE NO OTHERS. VERY WELL. THEY WILL ALSO BE DESTROYED." Sensing Picard's scrutiny, Kim'Taur turned back to the viewscreen and echoed, "YOU WILL BE DESTROYED. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."

The viewscreen quickly changed back to the space battle before Moor said, "He closed the channel, Captain."

Q humbly offered, "Nice try, Jean-Luc."

The _Enterprise_ was suddenly jolted by a blast from Kim'Taur's ship.

"Whoa boy! Gravimetric torpedoes, Captain! Dispersive s-shields have, ah, a-a-absorbed the energy, no, ah, no damage."

"Dispersive shields?" Q mused, "I'm impressed Jean-Luc, maybe humanity isn't quite so primitive after all."

"Target Kim'Taur's cube and concentrate fire at two-three-mark-five-five, attack pattern Eight Gamma," Picard tried to ignore Q as best as he could. He tugged on his tunic and calmly crossed his legs as he watched the battle unfold on the viewscreen while the _Enterprise _moved into attack position.

"_Won to Bridge, we're ready for a burst in speed now."_

"Commander Won," Picard explained as several explosions struck the armored cube that came from Kim'Taur's vessel, "Belay that order. Reprioritize your attention to the shields and structural integrity for now. Keep us informed."

There was a slight pause before Won disappointedly replied, _"Aye Captain." _

"Target acquired, Captain," Kardaz was already in the process of firing as Picard nodded and gave the order to fire.

_Fire_, a single word that by itself is just another word, yet when Picard voices it, it sends chills up the spines of the crewmen on the bridge. It was a simple four-letter word, yet one of the most powerful words a starship captain could say. Several blue blurs of quantum torpedoes surged towards Kim'Taur's ship which were interlaced with vicious streaks of the _Enterprise_'s advanced phasers.

"Direct hit Captain!"

"Attack pattern Two Alpha, keep hitting those coordinates. Ensign, watch the crossfire from the other cube," Picard ordered as he marveled at the sheer firepower of the tactical cube. It was indeed inflicting massive amounts of damage to the hull of Kim'Taur's ship. However, one of the clear faults of the behemoth to Picard was the lack of accuracy from the increase in firepower; it simply was not hitting the sweet spot on the cube as the _Enterprise_ was. Still, he was counting his blessings that Kim'Taur had not gained control of that monstrosity; the _Enterprise_ would have its hands full with the regular variant. So far though, everything was going better than expected.

The _Enterprise_ lurched onto its starboard nacelle and fired another volley at the same coordinates as before. With the occasional salvo of cutting beams and gravimetric torpedoes, both cubes were largely ignoring the _Enterprise_ as it focused on the rival cube—the greater threat at the moment.

"Captain, th-that last run, I'm not reading any damage on the cube!"

"Verify coordinates," Picard reasoned knowing that those coordinates he gave earlier would eventually destroy the cube and would always result in damage.

"Confirmed, S-Sir," Kardaz finally looked at Picard with a desperate expression of confusion, "It-it-it's like we-we never even fired!"

"Come now, Picard_,_ you didn't think it would be _that_ easy, did you?" Q said with a subtle tone of mockery in his voice, "Whoops, watch out, you made him mad now."

"Captain, Kim'Taur has broken off with the tactical cube and is on an intercept course with us," the ensign at the helm stated with a remarkable calm and alert voice.

"Hard to Por—" Picard began but was drummed out by another jolt. It was considerably more severe than the previous hit.

"What the…I, uh, I-I-I d-don't believe it!" Kardaz cried out, "K-Kim'Taur's ship just boosted its weapons output by…A-a-a-a hundred! S-shields down to 90% efficiency!"

Another series of quakes rattled the starship.

"M-make that 82%!"

"He has adapted," Picard gasped realizing that even the Borg weren't capable of adapting their _offensive_ technology so quickly whilst in the heat of battle, "Evasive maneuvers!"

Kim'Taur's ship unleashed a horrid bombardment of modified gravimetric torpedoes, taxing even the mighty _Enterprise_. Her advanced shielding was quickly buckling under the intense energy forces of Kim'Taur's cube.

"S-shields down to 66% Cap-Captain!" Kardaz roared over another series of vicious hits.

"Kimmy's got quite a punch!" Q chided as he started hovering above the deck; even he was growing tired of being rattled about.

The Borg weren't fairing well either; an entire armored piece of its hull peeled away from their hull after a ruthless slice from Kim'Taur's cutting beams. It was reminiscent to the lid of a tin can being pulled off. Picard wondered if the _Enterprise_ would share the same should their shields fail—being skinned alive.

"Deploy all mines and continue to fire," Picard said to Kardaz with more urgency than what he had used when the battle began, "Hail the armored cube, or what's left of her."

"WE ARE THE BORG. DROP YOUR SHIELDS AND PREPARE TO BE—"

"—I am Locutus of Borg," Picard interjected, "This ship is of no concern to you for assimilation. We must work together to stop the other cube."

There was a seemingly long pause in the Borg's reply as another series of blows struck the _Enterprise_. Finally, the Borg said, "YOU WILL ASSIST US THEN YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED. YOU WILL COMPLY."

"Some deal," Moor mumbled to himself, "Die now or be assimilated later."

"We will comply," Picard nodded and had the channel closed, much to the shock of the bridge officers, "The Borg are the lesser of two evils, we shall deal with them later when the time arises."

"Captain, the Borg are transmitting tactical and sensor data now, transferring to Tactical," Moor replied as he couldn't stand the Borg, let alone help them.

"Received Captain! Th-they also sent along s-schematics of the cube!"

The captain leaned forward and ordered, "Target their weapons and fire."

The _Enterprise_ turned about and unleashed a storm of fury at various positions on Kim'Taur's ship while the massive cube struck several mines the starship had laid moments before. The cube hardly seemed fazed until the tactical cube began synchronizing its own weapons with the _Enterprise_'s targeting patterns. Chunks of Kim'Taur's ship broke away with each successive combined bombardment. Suddenly, Kim'Taur's ship slowed to a stop and ceased firing of its weapons entirely while the _Enterprise _quicklysoared out of range, shifting into evasive maneuvers for the counter-attack.

Picard leaned back in his chair, as if expecting the cube to resume firing or explode. When it did neither, he asked, "Hold position. Status of Kim'Taur's ship?"

"Weapons, ah, appear to be offline," Kardaz said as his hands trembled over the tactical controls from the rush of combat.

"I'm also reading all other systems have powered down, Sir," Moor added, "I have no explanation."

Picard studied Q in search of an answer before Q noticed and shrugged, "Don't look at me, Jean-Luc, your guess is as good as mine."

As soon as the Borg cube began moving towards Kim'Taur's ship, Picard quickly recognized the maneuver. _It's the oldest trick in the book._ "Hail the tactical cube! Tell them to stay away from that ship, it's a trap!"

"No response Captain."

"Helm, bring us about, full impulse!" Picard bolted to his feet and stepped toward the viewscreen, as if he wanted to physically wave off the Borg. "Mister Kardaz, lock on to the tactical cube and fire all weapons! Draw it away from Kim'Taur's ship!"

"Sir the other cube is powering back up!" Moor cried out before the _Enterprise_ could move into position, "Sensors are detecting multiple transporter signatures between the two cubes!"

Picard glanced to his feet and slowly rubbed the top of his head in defeat. Confirming his suspicions, Moor uttered, "I…I think Kim'Taur is assimilating the Borg, Captain."

"I-I-I'm sorry, Captain," Kardaz softly said, "I couldn't establish a lock in time."

"You did your best, Commander," Picard uttered as his jaw line tensed.

As the captain slowly walked back to his chair, Q quietly said, "Well, Jean-Luc, you tried. There's no stopping him now that he has two cubes under his control. Your crew can still be saved though, at least, for a while before Kim'Taur knocks at your Federation door in a few days."

That stirred a thought in Picard. In the excitement of everything, he had forgotten about one major topic of great concern. "_The crew_? Q, what happened to Beverly and the others?"

"Eh…Like I said before," Q explained, "I can only do little parlor tricks. Your officers weren't technically there with you; I could only transport you. What you interacted with were…Ghosts of sorts."

"Ghosts?" Picard repeated, only half listening now that he knew his old crew was presumably safe.

"I don't know how to explain it for your small, primate mind to understand. It was their subconscious minds there with you. In their perspectives, essentially they all shared the same dream where the only real element in that dream was you and me."

"So they won't be helping," Picard muttered as he steadily decided on a new plan.

"There's a slight chance when they wake up, they'll remember their unique dream. Some might even choose to act on it if they realize it wasn't just a dream. It was the best I could do. And please, don't even ask about the android, Data, that one will take much too long to explain given the circumstances.

"Oh well, it really doesn't matter now, it's hopeless. We should throw a party to commemorate our noble deaths. How about some fermented potato juice from ancient Earth? Or maybe some Romulan Ale, outlawed in how many sectors now? Oh I know, maybe some company; I hear Orion slave women are just a hoot at parties."

Picard abruptly concluded his thoughts and decisively headed towards the turbolift before Q had the chance of doing something else obnoxious following that last statement. Before he stepped inside, he turned to his Tactical officer and said, "Mister Kardaz, you have the bridge. Take the _Enterprise_ to the nearest colony or outpost and evacuate all non-essential personnel. Attempt to reach the fleet for reinforcements but then you are to intercept Kim'Taur and engage him with or without the fleet. You must stop Kim'Taur at _all_ costs, do you understand?"

"I…Yes, Sir," Kardaz nervously nodded, as the spots along his neck almost seemed to turn pale at the task before him, "What…What of you, Captain?"

"I'll be taking a shuttlecraft to Kim'Taur's cube, beam aboard and God willing, stop Kim'Taur myself."

"I'll have a-a-a team of security officers, ah, meet you in the s-shuttle bay," Kardaz stated, feeling awkward to be insisting to not only a superior but _legendary_ officer."

"That won't be necessary," Picard forcefully said, "I must do this alone. The _Enterprise_ will need every security officer it can spare in the coming days. You have your orders." He took a final, approving look at the bridge and stepped inside the turbolift.

For the first time in his existence, Q didn't have a snide comment to say. He looked at the viewscreen of the two cubes with a reluctant scorn before he resigned to his thoughts and disappeared behind a blinding flash of white.

As soon as the turbolift doors closed behind the captain, he tapped his combadge and said, "Picard to Commander Won, meet with Doctor Falai immediately. I have an assignment for you both…"


	8. Chapter 7

ONBOARD THE _USS TITAN…_

Captain Riker woke up in a cold sweat and snapped to a sitting position. He was dazed and disoriented with his heart beating so fast it felt like it would jump out of his chest. He ran his fingers through his wet hair, attempting to calm himself.

"What the hell was that?" Riker mumbled to himself before he looked to the empty side of the bed, "Computer, time."

"_The time is 0440 hours,_" the familiar standard-issue female computer voice replied.

Riker sighed heavily. His shift wouldn't start for another hour and he knew it would be pointless to try to fall back asleep only to wake up again shortly afterwards. He wanted to see his wife, Deanna, but he knew she wouldn't be back for a while. Instead, he crawled out of bed and walked over to the replicator while he rubbed the back of his neck, trying to remember his nightmare.

"Hmm," he paused after reaching the replicator, considering what we wanted to eat or drink. Finally he rasped, "I don't know. Computer, Raktajino, 32 degrees Celsius."

The computer chimed and quickly materialized a cup of warm, Klingon coffee before him. He grabbed it and took a sip before he reeled at its strength, "Damn, that'll put some hair on your chest."

"_Please restate inquiry,"_ the computer replied.

"I wasn't talking to you," Riker said before he walked over to his desk with coffee in hand. He stiffly sat down, and continued to ponder about his nightmare. He has had his fair share of nightmares over the years, just like anyone else, and normally, he would easily be able to get over it. This time seemed to be different though. He was still troubled over it, his heart hadn't even calmed down yet and he was still sweating. It was also odd he couldn't remember anything from it; in past nightmares, at least he could remember some details, a vague sense of what happened, how he felt, _something_.

He began staring off into the distance as he tried to contemplate what happened, or at the very least, attempt to settle down. What seemed like mere seconds was actually twenty minutes. He was startled by the sensation of a hand suddenly on his shoulder. "Oh, Deanna!"

"Sorry," she warmly smiled and hugged Riker from behind, "I didn't mean to scare you. My last appointment for the day canceled on me, thought I'd come home early this morning."

She didn't have to be emphatic to sense something was wrong. Her smile quickly faded as she broke the embrace and her dark Betazoid eyes grew quite concerned, "Will, what happened?"

Riker turned around to face her and quietly replied, "I had a nightmare."

"Want to talk about it?"

"That's the thing," Riker scratched his beard, appreciative of the opportunity to voice his thoughts, "I can't for the life of me remember it. I woke up not too long ago in a cold sweat and I haven't been able to shake the feelings this nightmare caused."

"Should I call Sickbay?"

"Nah, it's probably nothing. I think I'm starting to settle down now anyways, especially with you here now. The dream, it just felt odd."

"Oh?" Deanna asked as she sat down next to her husband.

"I don't know, it's like there's a tiny voice in the back of my mind telling me that I should remember this particular nightmare, yet I can't. I just can't. Have you sensed anything strange? Maybe alien telepathy?"

"Now that you mention it, I thought I had experienced something for just a moment. It was like you had just disappeared, I stopped sensing you. I didn't think much of it as I started sensing you once again probably a second or two later."

"Disappeared? Computer," Riker sat up straighter in his chair and asked, "Did I leave this room for any amount of time within the past six hours?"

"_Negative, Captain Riker was in his quarters the entire six hours." _

"Do you remember what the time was when you noticed this?" Riker asked his wife.

"I was in an appointment with one of the new Ensigns, we were discussing one of his hobbies, temporal symmetry. He had mentioned the exact time as an example of clarification. It was then when I experienced it. 0440 hours and 44 seconds."

Riker nodded expectantly and asked, "Computer, according to internal scans, what was the precise time I woke up this morning?"

"_Captain Riker woke up at 0440 hours, 49 seconds, 12 milliseconds."_

"That's too damn close to be a coincidence," Riker reasoned.

"I agree," Deanna nodded with concern still in her eyes. Before they could say or do anything else, a voice came through the comm system.

"_Bridge to Captain Riker."_

Riker tapped his combadge and replied, "Riker here."

"_Sorry to disturb you, Sir. We're receiving a priority message from Ambassador Worf on Qo'noS."_

"Patch him through to my quarters," Riker activated his desktop viewscreen and the Federation emblem was quickly replaced by his former comrade.

"_Captain_," Worf nodded and noticed Riker's wife, "_Counselor_."

"To what do we owe the honor?" Riker grinned as he pushed the troubling thoughts of the morning out of his mind for now.

Worf gritted his teeth and allowed his eyes to wander, something that Riker came to recognize over the years as a sign that Worf was going to say something rather unbelievable."

"What's wrong, Worf?" Deanna asked, also keen of Worf's visible habits.

"_I believe I experienced _Degh'HaaKja," Worf explained, "_There is no exact translation but it is basically the equivalent of a night terror_."

"A nightmare?" Riker repeated as he exchanged a surprised glance with Deanna.

"_Yes…Klingons do not have _nightmares_; it is only a condition adolescents endure_."

Riker grabbed his knees and leaned forward closer to the viewscreen. "Worf, you're not going to believe this..."

--

Jean-Luc Picard had just briefed his chief engineer and doctor on the task he wanted them to complete when he ran into a team of security officers waiting for him beside the shuttle. He overruled Kardaz and dismissed the officers, believing that would be all the trouble he'd encounter. However, he was gravely mistaken. He was about to close the shuttle door behind him when he heard a female voice ask, or more precisely, _demand_,

"Permission to come with you, Captain!"

Picard poked his head back into the launch bay only to see Commander Sharra running towards the shuttle fully armed and sporting a Starfleet-issue combat uniform—a definite step up from the tattered uniform she had on when he last saw her after she reported to the Bridge from her adventures on the holodeck.

Picard shook his head and firmly stated, "Permission denied."

"Too bad," she shot back and stood on the ramp, preventing it from being closed without her.

"Pardon me, Commander? _Too bad?_ I'm still captain of this ship and crew, I have every—"

"—Sir, I need to go. Before you came back on the Bridge, I cracked like a warp core breech. It probably cost me my career in command but right now, I don't care about that. I fought the damn Cardies during the occupations. Then I fought the Dominion in Operation Return. Maybe I'm not right for command but I sure as hell know how to fight and that's exactly what you're going to need over there."

"You—"

"—I know it's against certain regulations but Captain, look at it like this, it's the duty of the first officer to protect the ship's captain. I'll be doing exactly that over there."

"Commander—"

"—_Captain_, I'm going one way or another. If I have to knock you on your ass and leave you behind, I'll do it but you're not going over there alone."

"Blast you Bajoran women," Picard mumbled before he said, "If you would have allowed me to speak without interruption, I would have allowed you to accompany me."

Sharra's face lit up like a photon torpedo, "Thank you Sir."

"Come, we haven't much time, Commander." They got underway and quickly departed the _Enterprise._ From the shuttle's cockpit, they watched their ship jump to warp and within an instant, was gone from view. "Why the change in mindset, Number One?"

"Hmm? Oh…Jillani has a way with words, Captain," was all that Sharra offered to say. Still, Picard understood all too well, Guinan had the same effect on him when she was aboard the old _Enterprise_. Without saying anything else, he laid in a course for Kim'Taur's cube. Suddenly, there was a white flash and he found Q standing behind them, hovering over their shoulders.

"Not you again," Sharra resented and rolled her eyes as she monitored ops.

"Shhh, grownups are speaking, sweetie." Q turned back to Picard and recited, "From hell's breath I stab at thee; for hate's heart I spill my last blood at thee."

Picard glanced behind him and mumbled, "That's from _Moby Dick_ but if you're going to quote it, quote it right. It's 'From hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."

As the captain returned his attention to the instruments, Q rambled on, "Oh details, details, _details _Picard. In any event, though, I see you're familiar with ole Cap'n Ahab, well, you should be, I'm sure you've been compared to him at least once before. It's true though, you're just like him, trying to kill a beast all by yourself knowing that it'll be the death of you."

"He's not by himself!" Sharra protested, "I'm going with him!"

"Scared little children don't count."

"I am not a child you little—"

"—Commander!" Picard bellowed, "Q! This is neither the time nor the place for petty bickering. The fate of the universe is at stake here. State your business and be gone, Q."

"I wanted to help," Q wearingly responded.

"You? Do you even know how to fire a phaser?" Sharra accusingly asked.

Q made one appear in his hand before he coyly said, "Oh gee, I don't know. Does the handle point towards me or the bad guys? Honestly, Commander Kiddie, the Q were using phasers long before humanity was still in the primordial ooze. I should know, I think I stepped in some at the time."

"I sincerely doubt the Q Continuum used any sort of the technology," Picard interjected as the cube grew larger while the shuttle continued to close in.

"_Touché_, Jean-Luc, _touché_."

Picard's fingers slowed over the flight controls before they stopped altogether, hovering above the console as a new thought surfaced in his head. After turning to Q, he uttered, "Perhaps you can help. Before, you told me you could only transport me into the white void of yours."

"Let me guess, you want me to transport Kim'Taur there too?"

"The thought did occur to me," Picard politely nudged Q along for an explanation.

"I tried. It didn't work. Need I remind you of my limited existence in this pitiful dimension? Even if I could somehow pull it off, it won't do you much good. It'd be like freezing rotting flesh, it'll only continue to rot after it thaws. You'll still have a problem, I can't detain him indefinitely."

Picard sighed quietly. It felt more preferable to be stabbed in the back by Nausicaans than to try to work with Q. Finally, he said, "Then we must find a way to destroy him in our realm."

Q considered Picard's words as the three watched the behemoth vessel push the stars away from view; the shuttlecraft was nearly within transporter range now. Before Q could respond, the shuttle was quickly jerked by a deceptively innocent green light that now filled the cabin.

"They've locked onto us with a tractor beam!" Sharra reported as Picard calmly entered a series of commands into the console. After he completed the sequence, he stood up, and walked a few steps behind his seat motioning Sharra to do the same. Just before they dematerialized, he baited Q with, "Who shall history remember as omnipotent, you whom just stood there or mere mortals that stopped the impossible by themselves?"

Q waited until they had shimmered out of view before he uttered with a skewed frown, "I knew I should have gone to Kathy Janeway instead, at least her sass was a little attractive. But _nooo_, I just had to choose Picard the Cowboy. Ugh." With the end of his whine, he clicked his tongue and also vanished from the shuttle behind a curtain of white.

--

"THE ENTERPRISE HAS JUMPED TO WARP," The Borg reported.

"Status of the assimilation of the tactical cube?" Kim'Taur asked his forged collective that was growing with every moment that passed. Drone by drone was being reformed onboard the tactical cube. The remnants of the Borg were adapting to Kim'Taur and the threat he posed, but were doing so at a snail's pace. The entire Collective would be assimilated before any substantial counter tactics were discovered.

"ASSIMILATION IS 35% COMPLETE. RESISTANCE WILL BE NULLIFIED."

"Is there a sufficient amount of slaves currently on the tactical cube to finish the assimilation efficiently?"

"NEGATIVE. ADDITIONAL SLAVES WILL BE REQUIRED."

"Then we will discontinue pursuit and aid in the task. Continue to monitor the _Enterprise_ on long-range sensors. Complete the assimilation then engage an intercept course, maximum warp."

"WE WILL COMPLY," resonated Kim'Taur's Borg drones.

"Transport me to the tactical cube," Kim'Taur ordered, "I will assist in the assimilation of the Borg." He suddenly received a proximity scan of a shuttlecraft approaching his cube and canceled his last order. Scans of the shuttle revealed a human male and a Bajoran female.

The Vulcan hallucination appeared once more and began speaking. "So Picard and his first officer have come to stop you, young one."

"How do you know this?" Kim'Taur asked, beginning to accept Satik's presence.

"It is the only logical deduction. Who else would feel most responsible to retrieve you?"

"Lock weapons onto the shuttlecraft," the renegade said to the Borg.

"That is rather irrational, Apprentice; perhaps it would be best to assimilate them. You would gain a significant tactical advantage over Starfleet with Picard's experience uploaded to your memory banks."

Kim'Taur's laser fluttered about as he processed Satik's advice.

"Maybe you need a second opinion Glinn Kim'Taur!" The new voice that was harsh and gravely appeared behind him making Kim'Taur spin around as his wrist-mounted phaser sprung up in anticipation of a new threat. His head tilted with mild confusion as he recognized the mysterious Cardassian figure.

"Malak," Kim'Taur nonchalantly stated, "You, as Satik, are both hallucinations and irrelevant."

"How _dare_ you speak to me like that!" Malak bellowed and stepped forward with pure anger and hatred in his eyes, "Have I taught you nothing? You _will_ show a superior officer respect or I shall beat this lesson into you as I have in the past. Understood Glinn?"

Kim'Taur's weapon retracted back into his wrist and he loosened into a more passive stance. "Irrelevant. In every way, I _am_ superior to you; you deserve no respect from me. State your intentions."

The Cardassian narrowed his beady eyes and ferociously replied, "If you destroy that ship, then you will have learned nothing! You must seize this opportunity and secure a decisive victory against your enemy! Learn Picard's secrets and the Federation _will_ fall at last!"

"I must agree with my tempered colleague, Apprentice. The death of Picard will be most illogical."

Kim'Taur put his back to both entities and uttered, "Secure the shuttlecraft. Assimilate the crew."

"WE CANNOT COMPLY," the Borg replied after a moment, "WE HAVE LOCKED ON TO THE SHUTTLE WITH A TRACTOR BEAM. THE CREW IS NO LONGER ABOARD. TWO TRANSPORTER SIGNALS HAVE BEEN DETECTED IN SECTION ONE-THREE-THREE SUBJUNCTION EIGHT-SIX."

"Continue with the assimilation of the tactical cube, I will deal with the intruders," Kim'Taur was about to activate his personal transporter device when Malak stepped forward.

"Have you lost your mind!?" He roared, "Send the Borg to do that! Overwhelm Picard with a swarm of drones!"

"Perhaps I should send you then," Kim'Taur said, whose voice sounded on the verge of anger.

"Young one, there is great strength in numbers," Satik added, "Remember your teachings. Send the Borg for Picard."

"I have become far more powerful than an entire army of Borg. I _will_ assimilate Picard."

"Fool," Malak bitterly retorted, "To have fallen so far and to have learned nothing. Overconfidence will be your downfall. Not that it really matters; it's obvious you already are a broken machine."

"I do not need your condescension or your lecture!" Kim'Taur grabbed a drone walking past him and hurled him through a computer hub. Sparks erupted at the console as the drone was electrocuted. When the sparks died down, Satik raised an eyebrow and evenly asked,

"Was that an emotional outburst? Curious for one that cannot express emotion."

Kim'Taur took a final look at the downed Borg before he engaged his transporter and beamed out in silence.

--

As soon as the Starfleet officers materialized, Picard heard the voice of the Collective in his mind, whispering in his ears just beyond hearing. He sensed that it had gone from order to sheer chaos with Kim'Taur's malicious intrusions. He quickly found a small removable bulkhead. After he opened it, he turned on his SIMS beacon and entered the cramped passageway.

"And I thought the Jefferies Tubes were small," Sharra mumbled behind him, "Captain, where are we?"

"It's the Borg equivalent to an EPS conduit, Number One, only less shielded. If…_When_ we return to the ship, we'll need to be inoculated for ionizing radiation."

"Understood Sir."

They eventually reached a junction where they could finally stand up and stretch their legs. Picard opened an access bulkhead to his right and shined his light far down the corridor with discontentment.

"Sir?"

"This isn't a standard configuration for a Borg cube," Picard explained, "There should have been an auxiliary power control five meters down this access corridor."

Sharra attempted to scan the area with her tricorder in search of the target but failed. "The radiation is interfering with scans, Captain."

Picard opened the door opposite of the first one he tried and saw the same thing—a long and confined corridor with nothing in it he wanted. He tried to open the last doorway in the junction but quickly found it to be sealed. Both officers turned around in shock when they heard the bulkhead far behind them open which was followed by metal sliding on metal.

"We must have been detected, Captain!" Sharra worriedly cried, "It's the Borg!"

Picard darted to the first corridor and tried to enter but was repelled by a force shield that went up. The same held true for the other one and they quickly found themselves trapped. The sounds of their enemy grew louder as he pulled himself closer to the junction. The red optical laser was already beginning to stab through the darkness.

Both officers drew their weapons and took up positions facing the corridor the drone was crawling in. Sharra was the only one that was focusing entirely on the corridor, however. With his phaser pointed to the corridor, Picard was looking around in the junction in hopes of finding an escape route. He happened to look above him and at last, discovered what appeared to be an emergency access port.

"Commander, kneel down here," once she did, he added, "Excuse me," and stepped onto Sharra's shoulders. It was just enough of a boost for Picard to open the hatch and pull himself through. He extended his arm back down and pulled Sharra up. She was nearly through when another arm appeared behind her and grabbed her leg. With a single motion, the arm pulled Sharra down, nearly taking Picard with her. The arm's body came into Picard's view and he was rather shocked to see that it was Kim'Taur rather than a Borg drone.

A blade was drawn from Kim'Taur's waist and he raised it above Sharra's head for a lethal strike. Without hesitation, Picard jumped through the hatch and landed on the renegade's back, momentarily knocking him off balance. Commander Sharra shook off the effects of the hard landing and hurled herself at Kim'Taur's knees. Between Picard's maneuver and Sharra's strike, the drone toppled over face first. By the time Picard got up, Sharra already had her phaser rifle trained on Kim'Taur. He had rolled over and was about to sit up but to the officers' surprise, the drone stopped upon noticing the weapon trained on him.

"It's over, Commander," Picard said to Kim'Taur in a victorious voice, "Allow us to take you into custody. There is no further need for hostilities."

The drone looked beyond Picard, as if someone was behind him and uttered, "Silence, both of you. I grow weary of your presence. I said be silent Malak!"

Picard immediately recalled who Malak was, the Cardassian warrior that helped train the renegade commando. As Picard began putting the pieces together in his mind, Sharra looked at him wondering what he wanted her to do. Kim'Taur immediately exploited the brief lapse in concentration and easily disarmed Sharra, pushing her away. As the captain attempted to react, Kim'Taur had already sprung to his feet and lunged at the Starfleet officer, knocking the weapon out of Picard's hand only to lift him by his neck, choking Picard out of anger.

"I am Kim'Taur of the Army of Unimatrix Five-Three!" Kim'Taur was nearly growling at this point, "At last, Captain Picard, you will be destroyed! You will serve me!"

Sharra bolted towards Kim'Taur and clubbed his head with the butt of her rifle, calling upon every bit of Bajoran fury within her. While it didn't do much, it was enough for Kim'Taur to drop Picard back to the deck. The Starfleet drone responded with a relentless backhanded strike across Sharra's face. Immediately, he returned his attention to Picard and extended his arm towards the downed captain whom was straining to recover his breath. Commander Sharra entered a random modulation into her phaser rifle and fired at Kim'Taur from behind, praying that it would at the very least stun the renegade.

No effect.

Kim'Taur turned to face Sharra once more while his wrist-mounted phaser was triggered. To Picard's horror, Sharra was heartlessly shot several times. As she fell backwards, the terrified expression on her face was burned into Picard's memory. He has witnessed many unfortunate deaths in his service in Starfleet yet Sharra's seemed the most intense of all. He desperately wanted to avenge her death but he knew he had to regroup; he knew he couldn't do much of anything right now, let alone in such a restricted space. Picard reluctantly scrambled to the EPS conduit and was about to crawl away when Kim'Taur reached inside and grabbed Picard's leg. Before he could pull Picard out however, the captain heard a dull roaring grunt behind him,

"KIM'TAAAAAAUR!" Sharra was still somehow alive and not only managed to charge the drone but was also able to climb onto his back while trying to choke the drone. As Kim'Taur tried to shake her off, she looked to her captain and fearlessly cried, "GO!"

Picard saw the urgency and crawled into the conduit as fast as his limbs would carry him. In Sharra's left hand, Picard had seen a small object that was blinking—a photon grenade. He had barely gotten out of its range when it detonated. It illuminated the crawl space with a blinding yellow light and the sound reverberated through the area. Picard paused for a moment acknowledging the real death of his first officer. With any luck, she succeeding in taking Kim'Taur with her, but he doubted the possibility.

He had reached the corridor and pulled himself out of the crawl space when he started hearing metal slowly sliding on metal behind him. Indeed, Kim'Taur was still functioning but perhaps he had been wounded or damaged. It would certainly give Picard a slight advantage if either was the case. The captain began walking down the corridor before he stopped in mid step at the unquestionable sound he heard—Borg drones activating and stepping out of their alcoves. He sighed quietly and started off in the opposite direction, only to stop once more.

"Damn," he whispered to himself upon realizing he was completely trapped in the corridor with the Borg cutting him off in both directions and with Kim'Taur approaching him from the conduit behind him. All hope seemed lost as the first drones stepped through the darkness on either side of him. Suddenly, he saw several figures materialize around him, enclosing him entirely. Initially, he almost thought they were security officers from the _Enterprise_, that Kardaz disobeyed his orders after all and came to save the day. The captain quickly saw he was quite mistaken. They were more drones. Surrendering to his apparent fate, he dropped his phaser and waited patiently for assimilation.

The Borg that had beamed in, however, were ignoring him completely and were instead marching towards the other drones. Picard watched with confused eyes for a moment before he picked up his phaser and followed some of the drones moving down the corridor. It became apparent that the drones that beamed aboard were still part of the Borg Collective and were now attempting to retake Kim'Taur's ship. As each side in the strange civil war battled each other in the corridor, Picard was able to maneuver past the drones and slipped unnoticed into another corridor.

He found a hub and attempted to access the main computer, perhaps he could initiate the self-destruct if his efforts were successful. As he worked, he heard a crisp jingle of sorts beside him.

"I was wondering when you'd show up, Q," Picard uttered as he continued working on the computer's encryption, never bothering to look at the new arrival.

"Sorry Jean-Luc, I was busy saving your life," Q coyly said before Picard scoffed at him, "Who do you think redirected the Borg's transporter coordinates to your immediate location? I thought it was rather ingenious of me, if I do say so myself. If you're trying to break the encryption codes, you won't guess them in time."

Picard worked for another moment before he reluctantly agreed and stopped working. Turning to Q, he demanded, "I'm open to suggestions."

There was a blast in the corridor where he had been trapped moments before and two drones flew past Picard's line of sight after they were pushed away from the resulting shockwave. He couldn't tell if they were the Borg or if they were Kim'Taur's drones.

"Right now you need to run," Q stated, ignoring the blast, "That weapon of yours is out for blood and he'll be here in a few seconds."

Trusting Q's advice, Picard took off running. It was a very smart move on the captain's part for Kim'Taur appeared at the juncture and fired at Picard's previous position seconds before he had moved. The renegade continued to fire but the legendary captain was agile enough to continue darting behind bulkheads and corners, dodging the phaser fire, as he continued to run off. The shots were always close but close never gets the kill in a hunt.


	9. Chapter 8

ON QO'NOS, THE KLINGON HOMEWORLD…

Ambassador Worf marched towards the chancellor's chambers with great determination. His long time friend and leader of the Klingon Empire was staying at the Federation embassy for reasons unknown to Worf. As he approached the guest quarters, the two guards straightened up and looked more alert in Worf's presence. When they blocked him from entering, Worf boomed, "I must see the chancellor at once!"

"The chancellor is not to be disturbed," one of the bodyguards snarled. He was an older Klingon, an unusual selection for a bodyguard but even with his peppered hair, he still bore an aura of intense authority. The guard shook his head and added, "You will have to return later."

"Do you know who I am?" Worf lowered his voice, attempting to coax his way inside.

"You seem to be under the impression that I care," the elder guard shot back, "No visitors."

Worf's eyes narrowed as his patience grew thin. "I am Worf—"

"—Son of Mogh of the House of Martok," the guard wearingly said, "Yes, yes. I know, _Ambassador_. No. Visitors. Allowed."

It was unusual for the chancellor to deny him from seeing him and Worf started to suspect another coup attempt was in progress. His suspicions were nullified however when the chamber doors opened and the chancellor appeared in the doorway.

"Ah! Worf! It is good to see you old friend!"

"Chancellor Martok," Worf said, "I have urgent matters to discuss with you."

Martok bellied a roaring laugh and uttered, "You haven't changed at all, Worf, it's always business with you. Come, stretch your legs with me, I have been stuck in those quarters like a caged animal since I arrived here."

"Chancellor!" The elder guard stepped forward, protesting Martok's decision to leave the safety of his quarters.

Martok spun around and placed a hand on his sharpened _d'k tahg_ that was attached to his belt and rasped, "Maal, are you challenging me?"

Maal considered his next words very carefully before he finally bowed his head in submission and replied, "No, Chancellor, I am not."

"That is what I thought," Martok grisly said, "Remain vigilant here; no one enters my quarters in my absence. I will return shortly."

"…As…As you wish, Chancellor," Maal reluctantly said and took his place in front of Martok's door. As the two high ranking officials walked away, Worf inquired about the new security measures.

"The Klingon Defense Force has reason to believe the Romulans sent an assassin to take me into Sto'Vo'Kor," the chancellor explained.

"The Romulans?" Worf said with surprise.

"I don't believe it anymore than you but this is what the Empire has come down to—mass paranoia and unfounded beliefs."

"I would rather take suspicion over dishonor any day," Worf pointed out as they continued their walk in the Federation embassy, "The House of Duras nearly destroyed the Empire, at least you have started to change things."

"You've gotten all the more wise in your old age, Ambassador, wise words indeed. Still, the Defense Force insisted on taking 'proper precautions' with the threat of an assassin, no matter how unlikely it is. I hope those _shuVaks _did not impose upon you, they follow orders perhaps too diligently."

Worf grinded his teeth, suppressing his frustration with them before he politely replied, "Not at all, Chancellor."

They had reached the mess hall where a mix of Starfleet officers, support staff and the Klingons from Martok's own warship were scattered at various tables, eating and socializing. With the exception of the occasional 'Hail Chancellor' or 'Glory to the Empire' from some of the Klingons, they were otherwise unnoticed as they stepped inside and sat at the bar.

"What can I get you, Sirs?" the Bolian barkeep asked.

"Bloodwine and _gagh_!" Martok bellowed with a proud laugh. As the barkeep was about to turn away to fill the orders, Martok roared, "And none of that replicated garbage! I want the real thing this time!"

"Of course, Sir, coming right up," the barkeep said.

"It's amazing how you survived off those Federation replicators, my friend," Martok said to Worf, "It's just not the same as the fresh delicacies on Klingon ships."

"I managed," Worf murmured.

"Now then," Martok said with a grainy voice, "What was so urgent that nearly compelled you fight your way into my quarters?"

"I have reason to believe the Federation requires the Empire's immediate assistance," Worf said, hesitant to go into further detail given the circumstance.

"The Klingon Empire is not the Federation's errand boy to be ordered around!" Martok sighed and then asked, "Which admiral are you relaying this _request_ to me so I know who to tell that to?"

Worf looked away from the chancellor as the barkeep returned with two glasses of Bloodwine and two bowls of _gagh_. Martok noticed Worf's hesitant reaction and concluded, "This isn't an official request, is it Worf?"

Worf took a sip of the wine and returned his gaze to Martok before he muttered, "Not yet."

The chancellor considered Worf with a slack jaw as his lips began to curl upwards. Finally, he rolled his head back and let a hefty laugh loose with a renewed sense of interest in what Worf was saying.

"Let me get this right," Martok said at last as the laughter died down, "You are implying that if I choose to help the Federation, they won't even know they need help in the first place? Do you know the implications of that would be? It would be a great diplomatic victory against our Federation allies. Imagine, the Empire rushing in and gloriously saving the day without the Federation begging for help!" He wallowed in the thought even as he chomped down on a handful of the serpent worms.

"Then you agree to help?" Worf asked as he eyed the _gagh_ before him and ultimately decided he wasn't hungry.

Martok's jolliness quickly ended as he stared at Worf and firmly stated, "I agree to _nothing_. Only fools rush in with a blind eye. Tell me, Worf, what is needed of the Empire?"

His willingness to listen was at least encouraging for Worf. The ambassador lowered his voice and started to carefully explain the situation to the chancellor. "Starfleet has developed…A weapon to use against the Borg."

Martok groaned and rasped, "I do not like where this is heading, Ambassador Worf."

"There was a malfunction and now many people are in danger."

"People of the Federation or the Empire?" Martok asked in the same tone to maintain discreteness.

"I do not know," Worf's jaw tightened at the inevitable and unbelievable explanation he would have to give. For now though, he carried on, "As I said, there was a malfunction and I believe it has enhanced the Borg instead of defeating them."

"You _think_? Worf, be sure!"

"I cannot, please, I will explain in time, Chancellor. I do know that whatever has happened or will happen cannot go unnoticed. Our warships must be deployed near the Kalanna System to intercept a Borg ship that has been…Tainted with this weapon before it has the chance to grow stronger."

"What _will_ happen? _Tainted_ Borg? Worf, you are making as much sense as a Gallinian Bore."

"Then…You do not believe me," Worf started to lead Martok's next response, a tactic he learned from Federation criminal interrogations.

The blue and bald bartender stepped in front of the two Klingons and kindly asked, "How's everything tonight? I personally ordered the Bloodwine from H'hattaja, one of the finest producers of Bloodwine in the Empire."

"Leave us be!" Martok blared to the Bolian, startling the barkeep before he slinked away. The chancellor looked back to Worf and rasped, "Worf, when you came to me to overthrow Gowron during the Dominion War, I did eventually come to believe you then as you had evidence to support your beliefs. Now you ask me to deploy our forces in the face of the Borg, a mission that will no doubt be filled with glorious deaths for our warriors, deaths that are needless in a time when civil war has ravaged the Empire. Before I can commit to this, what is your proof this time? What evidence do you have to believe this new weapon Starfleet used has escalated the Borg into such an immediate threat?"

Martok was straining to keep his voice low; it prompted some curious glances from the other patrons whom Worf noticed had quieted down considerably since they entered.

"Perhaps we should not discuss it here," Worf offered, wary of eavesdropping ears.

"We will discuss it _now_!" Martok growled as he emphasized his last word by slamming his fist onto the bar table.

Worf looked around him for any obvious signs of unauthorized listeners. Somewhat satisfied after glaring at the obvious culprits, silently demanding them to stop listening in, he quietly explained, "I can only explain how I know this as _Degh'HaaKja_."

"_Degh'HaaKja_?" Martok groaned once more before he snidely uttered, "I see no spontaneous hair growth on you. No unusual aggressive tendencies. No mood swings. Yet you speak of _Degh'HaaKja_? Worf, are you a young little warrior again? Are you going through _Jak'tahla_?"

As Martok bellied an insulting laugh, he jokingly punched Worf's arm. The Klingon ambassador calmly retorted, "I am _not_ going through puberty. I cannot explain these night terrors but somehow, they were real. Of this I give you my word."

"I respect your word and your honor," Martok said with all seriousness, "but again, where is the proof, Worf? I may be leader of the Klingon Empire but my generals will not deploy our warships on the grounds of a dream."

Worf finished off his Bloodwine with a loud gulp before he reluctantly said, "The weapon. I trained him."

--

Captain Riker entered the bridge of the _Titan_ and demanded while heading to his ready room, "Mister Najem, patch me through to Starfleet Command, Priority One and make it a secure channel, authorization Riker Two Alpha. In here, please."

Riker had just sat down behind his desk when his personal viewscreen was activated and the Federation seal was replaced by Admiral Kathryn Janeway.

"Hello Captain Riker," Janeway said, "I must say this is a surprise. What can I do for you?"

"Admiral, are you aware of the _Enterprise_'s current mission?"

The color seemed to drain from her face as she looked at someone off screen and sent him or her out of her office. Turning back to Riker, she said, "I'm afraid her current mission is on a need to know bases, Captain."

"With respect, Admiral, you and I both know about the weapon so let's just cut to the chase."

Janeway arched her eyebrows and crossed her hands together on her desk feeling rather appalled how much Riker actually knew. "I'm listening."

"The _Enterprise _has delivered the drone but something went wrong."

"Define 'something,' Captain."

"I don't know the specifics, Admiral, only that it malfunctioned and has turned against the _Enterprise_."

"Care to explain how you know this? We're still out of communication range with them, as are you last time I checked."

"Captain Picard contacted me, in a dream of sorts."

Janeway quickly blinked twice before she repeated, "A dream?"

"I know, it's hard to believe, Admiral, I didn't believe it at first either. Then I spoke with Ambassador Worf, my former Tactical officer when I was first officer on the _Enterprise-D_, and he described a very similar event. We helped each other remember certain pieces of this so-called dream we both had. It's too similar to just be coincidence."

"He's on Qo'noS, light years away from your position, correct?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"Then it wasn't another Caretaker entity."

"Excuse me, Admiral?"

"The Caretaker was a very powerful entity. It's a long story, Captain."

Riker was suddenly reminded of another powerful being and was then able to visualize more details about the dream. He resentfully uttered, "Q."

Janeway's eyes rolled upwards with despair as she replied with, "Oh no…"

"Q was there and had teleported Captain Picard and most of his other original senior staff to this white void of a place. I'm sure of it now. Q was responsible, Admiral."

With the onset of a headache after Q was mentioned, the admiral nodded and said, "I've had my own dealings with Q in the Delta Quadrant; I know what he's capable of. All right, you've convinced me. How can I help?"

"Admiral, I would like all available ships to rendezvous with the _Enterprise_. If the drone really is malfunctioning, the fleet will need to intercept the ship the drone is on and stop him before anyone gets hurt. Who knows what that thing can accomplish if it decided to attack our ships or God forbid our outposts."

"I'll see what I can do, Captain, but most of our ships are still out in deep space picking up the pieces from the Dominion War. Even if they could be reassigned immediately, it would take quite a while to reach the _Enterprise_."

"Admiral, the _Titan _can reach her in a fraction the time," Riker suggested, "Allow us to make a run for it. Two ships are at least better than one."

Janeway carefully weighed his suggestion against his current mission. "Captain," she began, "How are negotiations with the Reptilians?"

"About the same as they were a few centuries ago, Admiral. It feels like I'm just banging my head against the wall with these people. Both sides can certainly use a break from the talks."

Again, Janeway hesitated. Finally, she replied, "We can't afford to lose the Reptilians; we need them to join the Federation as full allies. I'm sorry, Captain, I cannot authorize you to break orbit. You'll do more good where you're at."

Her words were cold and bitter to Riker. "But Admiral—"

"—I'm sorry Captain but this is not up for debate," it was clear that she wasn't accustomed to subordinates questioning her will, "And if I find you've abandoned your current mission, I'll drag you to the Brig myself and bust you back to Ensign so fast you'll think you're at Warp Ten. You have your orders. Janeway out."

Her image was replaced by the Federation emblem once more, which only added to Riker's frustration. It felt like Janeway just didn't care about the _Enterprise_ and having her cut him off like that only intensified the reaction. Riker stood up and leaned over his desk, his attention quickly focusing on a text copy of the novel _Madame Bovary_, which was a gift from Picard himself after his transfer to the _Titan_. The book was one of Picard's favorites.

"Allies be damned," Riker huffed and defiantly walked back to the bridge. He stood in the center of the deck and made sure what he was about to do was really what he wanted.

_Absolutely. So what's a few months in the Brig?_

"The _Enterprise_ is in danger and is requesting reinforcements," Riker boomed to the bridge officers as their heads began turning to him from their stations, "We're the only ones even remotely close so I'm taking the _Titan_ to her. This will be a blatant disregard for our orders from Starfleet so if anyone objects, please do so now and I will note it in my log."

There were some uneasy looks on the bridge until a young Lieutenant stepped up from ops and said, "I'm sorry Sir, permission to be relieved of duty?"

Riker respected the officer's opinion and nodded, "Granted. It'll be noted in my log, Mister Simms."

"Thank you Sir."

As he headed for the turbolift, Riker waited for anyone else who wanted to leave to come forward. His first officer stepped forward and waited to be acknowledged.

"Commander Vale?"

"Sir, the _Enterprise _used to be my home too, hell, half our crew probably has ties to that ship one way or another. If she's in trouble, by God I want to help."

Riker proudly nodded at the most recent tactical officer to leave the _Enterprise _before instinctively looking at his Vulcan Tactical officer for further approval. He found the officer looking back at him with an icy glare that seemed natural for Vulcans.

"Captain," the alien officer replied, "As you said, what you are planning to do is strictly against Starfleet regulations and thus I must officially protest."

Riker started to frown fearful that he would lose a key officer before the inevitable battle yet to come over his decision to leave this system. One of the Vulcan's eyebrows shot upwards before he added, "However, my first duty is to this ship and its crew, second only to Starfleet Command. It would be illogical to leave my station considering you and this ship will require an experienced Tactical officer now than perhaps ever."

Grinning at that, Riker sat down in his command chair and ordered, "Helm, break orbit and set a course for the Kalanna Sector, the _Enterprise_'s last known location, Maximum Warp. Mister Najem, signal the Reptilians that negotiations are on hold until further notice. I'll ask Deanna to send a more formal message of our condolences off later."

"Aye Captain!"

"Course laid in, Sir."

"Engage," Riker decisively ordered before the Luna-class starship jump to warp.

--

"Explain!" The Borg queen shouted, enraged with the recent events being fed into her cortical nodes.

"WE ARE BEING ASSIMILATED IN SECTOR 3125.38," the Borg Collective replied, "A NEW COLLECTIVE HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED ON CUBE 146. THE MEANS OF ASSIMILATION ARE UNKNOWN. INFORMATION ON THE NEW COLLECTIVE IS UNAVAILABLE."

"You will adapt!"

"WE CANNOT COMPLY."

Those words were strange to the Borg queen. For as long as the Borg was in existence, they had always served her well. Even when failure was at hand, it had never been as decisive as it was turning out to be now.

"Assimilation of the Federation weapon is irrelevant now," the queen grudgingly ordered, "Ignore the Federation entirely. Destroy the infected cube at all costs. Transport drones to the cube and destroy it from the inside if you must but you will destroy it."

"WE WILL COMPLY."

"Show all Borg vessels within three parsecs of the engagement zone," the queen was aware of the fact that Borg vessels were not in the immediate area and would take some time to arrive. Still, she wanted to boost her tactical situation and thought it would be best should the need for additional drones arise, the ships would already be en route. Almost immediately, the relevant information was streamed into her mind. As expected, additional ships were few in number. What ships were in the area where merely Obelisks and Diamonds—probe and scouting vessels. They had limited firepower and capability but it would be better than nothing at all.

"Of those, show me the vessels capable of utilizing transwarp conduits," the queen said. The stipulation had narrowed the results to three vessels before she ordered, "Very well. Diamonds 983 and 845 and Obelisk 1284, assist BX-3553 in Sector 3125.38. Use a transwarp conduit. Destroy Cube 146."

"WE WILL COMPLY," the Borg acknowledged while the queen continued to process the events in the Kalanna System with great distain. Though the Federation has clearly manufactured a weapon that seems to be particularly devastating to the Borg, at least initial reports have indicated the Federation has lost control of the weapon. A weapon is hardly efficient if it cannot be controlled. Perhaps the setback will eliminate the program altogether.

There was a flash of bright light beside the queen, distracting her from her supervisory duties. She stepped back, startled by the mysterious intruder whom bore a Human male appearance. Drones immediately surrounded the two, poised for assimilation of the intruder.

"Now, now, Beautiful, that's no way to meet Uncle Q," the intruder said before he threw his arms up and somehow pushed all of the drones away from him.

The drones moved in again but this time, the queen raised a hand, delaying their actions. Intrigued, the queen playfully said, "I don't know who you are but you're bold. Do you have any idea where you are? Life as you know it is over."

"Oh spare me your trivial and cliché threats, you can't assimilate me. You've probably heard of me before. I'm the great and powerful Q: Galactic hero, savior, life giver, rock star, the list goes on really," Q waited for a hint of recognition from the queen but when no indication came, he continued, "Well, that's not important, I'm too humble for those silly ego inflators anyways. I come here to help you."

"Help me?"

"No, no, no, I mean help the Borg Collective," Q crossed his arms in front of him, unimpressed by the queen's lack of interpretation skills.

"How can _you_ help the Collective? We will simply assimilate you and use you as we please."

Anger flashed through Q's eyes as he threatened, "Try it and I turn the entire Collective into space dust."

As if to call his bluff, the queen had a single drone approach Q from behind to attempt assimilation. The drone's arm was extended but before the assimilation tubules could be engaged, Q turned around and snapped his fingers. The drone exploded into billions of gaseous particles and quickly dispersed into the atmosphere of Unimatrix One.

Q breathed an inconspicuous sigh of relief. He was bluffing, of course, his limited existence in this dimension would prove vaporizing an entire race like the Borg quite impossible. Still, he was able to vaporize one drone—barely—and that was all that was needed. He quickly turned around and glared at the queen, almost daring her to press her luck again.

"State your offerings of help," the queen gave in, completely unaware of Q's con job.

"I know how to stop the Federation weapon."

"Explain."

"Nah-uh-uh," Q said as he waved a finger in front of him, "That's for me to know and you to never find out. All you need to know is to stay out of the Kalanna System. Let the Federation deal with their weapon."

"Curious 'help,'" the Borg queen responded with a mocking expression.

"Do not question the mighty Q. The more Borg you send into the fight, the more powerful this weapon gets. Reconcile your losses. Take what's left of your tactical cube and get out of the sector as fast as you can. The Federation will finish what they started."

"We are Borg. We do not run from our problems," the queen stated, "The weapon will be destroyed and the Federation will be assimilated."

Q rubbed his forehead and mumbled, "Ugh if you say 'Resistance is futile,' I am going to get a serious headache. I've heard it far too many times today."

"Leave Unimatrix One immediately. You will comply."

Q removed his hand and looked up at the queen with annoyed eyes. He scolded, "That's the trouble with you Borg. All brawn and no brain, it's no wonder the Collective goes extinct in the future. I'm telling you, Sugar Buns, fallback. Do not send more Borg there. You'll live to regret it and then you will die."

"How do you know—" Q snapped his fingers and disappeared behind another blinding burst of light before the queen could finish her question. The queen stood there, dumbfounded, as the guardian drones returned to their positions now that the intruder had left. Eventually, the Borg queen failed to heed Q's advice. She contacted the three tiny ships and requested they attempt to double their speed to the Kalanna System.


	10. Chapter 9

Kim'Taur stood at a junction and scanned the corridors, searching for traces of his prey. He was incredibly damaged from the blast of the grenade Sharra Bii detonated. He would be fairing much better had his nanoprobes were operating at peak efficiency. While they were able to assimilate the Borg, their regeneration abilities were no longer functioning properly, in fact, they were beginning to degrade once again. Though the renegade did not show it, he was rather frustrated with his entire situation. The damage inflicted upon him heavily impaired his scanners and his mobility allowing Picard to outrun and effectively evade him, at least for the moment. A tactical entry in his malfunctioning memory banks was accessed automatically and Kim'Taur decided upon an arbitrary corridor, slowly limping down it as he continued the hunt for Picard with his phaser at the ready.

Once Kim'Taur was out of view, Picard removed a grate and cautiously crawled back into the corridor where the drone had stood moments before. After peaking around the corner to make sure Kim'Taur was out of sight, Picard headed for the opposite corridor, keeping an eye behind him. His breath was taken away when he faced forward and saw Commander Kim'Taur blocking his path despite all logic. He was well lunging distance now and the captain knew his time was up; Kim'Taur wouldn't be able to miss at this range. As a last ditch effort, Picard quickly fired his phaser at his foe.

The beam of energy passed harmlessly through Kim'Taur.

Confused, Picard fired once more but again his shot passed through the commando. The captain's jaw tightened as he stepped closer and extended an arm, trying to touch the drone. Like the phaser blasts, it too passed through. Picard breathed a sigh of relief and walked through the holographic projection. It became apparent to him that Kim'Taur was trying to funnel him closer to the clutches of the drone. Evading him may prove to be more difficult than originally expected.

After what seemed like hours of wandering for Picard, he finally found an auxiliary access control for the Borg equivalent of Main Engineering. It was guarded by another image of Kim'Taur. Like the first projection, it too was just as motionless.

As the captain fearlessly walked towards it, he mumbled to himself, "Fool me once…"

He was about to pass through it when he noticed the hair on the back of his neck stand up as he approached the hologram, almost as though he was approaching a force field, a considerable oddity for holograms…Unless, it was no hologram. He realized this too late as the 'hologram' grabbed Picard and threw him hard to the deck, knocking the wind out him. The next thing Picard knew, a very-much real Kim'Taur was kneeling on his chest and his arm extended towards the captain's neck.

"Nooo!" a burly voice bellowed.

Kim'Taur recognized the voice but chose to ignore it. Assimilation tubules penetrated Picard's neck just as Kim'Taur seemed to have been tackled off Picard.

The captain grabbed his neck in pain as he pulled himself to his feet with his breath finally returning to him. Hopefully no nanoprobes were transferred to him or else his mission on the cube would come to an abrupt end. As he focused on the fight further down the corridor, he saw what appeared to Kim'Taur engaging in an intense battle of strength with someone as they tumbled around on the metal deck beneath, yet there was no one there. Picard watched in disbelief for only moments more before he approached the control console and attempted to initiate a way to destroy the ship. Unknown to him, Kim'Taur was engaging a large Klingon foe, or so the renegade thought.

"_jIH DIchDaq HoH SoH_!" The Klingon entity growled as he strained to overpower the drone. In Kim'Taur's mind, the warrior was clad in a traditional black and grey Klingon uniform with a silver sash slung over his right shoulder.

"I will destroy you Worf!" Kim'Taur growled back, prompting Picard to look up and glance at the air Kim'Taur was struggling with as he wrestled himself back to his feet.

He surmised that if Kim'Taur truly believed he was fighting the real Worf, then it wouldn't hurt to help 'Worf.' Thinking quickly, Picard switched his phaser to its maximum setting and fired a well-placed shot to Kim'Taur's leg. Kim'Taur hadn't adapted to the setting and his leg experienced the full brunt of the phaser blast. Though it didn't vaporize the drone, it was enough to alter his balance momentarily. The Worf entity was able to exploit this and finally pushed Kim'Taur away. When Kim'Taur stepped forward, Worf delivered a swift uppercut and Kim'Taur stumbled back once more. Before Kim'Taur could recover a second time, Worf made a Bat'leth appear in his hands and took a defensive stance.

Worf's eyes narrowed as he passively twirled the sword, displaying his highly trained skill with the blade. "I am Worf! Son of Mogh! You are Renny Kim'Taur, my student!"

Kim'Taur didn't seem to be fazed and instead, extended his forearm scythes and limped towards the Klingon.

"Stop!" Worf boomed as he clenched his Bat'leth tighter in his hands. Kim'Taur continued to move in and Worf growled, "Do not dishonor me! Obey my commands!"

Finally, Kim'Taur hesitated. Picard again looked up from his work on the console and wondered what was going on inside the rogue commando's head.

"You are not real," Kim'Taur mumbled as the images of Malak and Satik appeared behind him, surrounding him together with Worf.

"You incompetent goat," Malak disapprovingly said after appearing behind Kim'Taur, "You cannot even defeat a Klingon imbecile. I trained you better than this. You deserve death." Malak delivered a stiff punch into Kim'Taur's kidney.

"You deserve death," Satik repeated and bashed a wooden staff on the top of Kim'Taur's head.

As Kim'Taur dropped to kneeling position, Worf stepped forward twirling the Bat'leth in his hands uttering, "_SoH baq Hegh_, you deserve death. Immediately after, Worf dealt a powerful uppercut from the blunt edge of the Klingon sword into Kim'Taur's chin.

Picard looked just as the drone inexplicitly fell backwards. It was baffling to witness the true power of the mind, that it can trick the body into believing it was fighting other beings. Also, it appeared his mind was _losing_ the fake battle_. Interesting indeed_.

The captain returned his attention to the console, taking advantage of Kim'Taur's insanity. He was fortunate to have bypassed the main encryption after a dozen attempts. The system that he needed though, access to the warp core, was still locked. It appeared Kim'Taur had enabled a two-word authentication code. It could be anything, really, and Picard certainly did not have the time to try every possible combination.

Like clockwork, Q appeared beside the captain.

"_Bonjour mon capitaine_," Q snidely remarked before he noticed Kim'Taur and amusingly uttered, "Hnh, to think I thought I've seen it all. This is definitely a first for me."

"Q," Picard hurriedly replied, ignoring the strange fight, "I need to know Kim'Taur's authentication code. Can you help?"

"Come now, Jean-Luc, how would I know what's going on inside that thing's head?" Q countered, "I'm omnipotent, not clairvoyant."

"Regardless, I would venture it may be something personal, something only he would know. A specific date perhaps? Or someone close?

"Nope, no idea," Q replied as he started nibbling on some popcorn he made appear while he watched the fight unfold, "Ouch that had to hurt."

Kim'Taur doubled over, clutching his lower abdomen in agony. Immediately, he was thrown against the bulkhead but he managed to bounce off and propel himself forward with one of his forearm blades leading the way. He ducked before he wildly swathed the air around him. In his madness, he cried, "You will be destroyed! If I die then my children will finish what I started!"

"Children," Picard gasped at the revelation. The voice of the Collective grew louder in his mind and drowned out his own thoughts; it suddenly seemed much more organized in its efforts now than ever before. Clearly the Borg Queen had become greatly displeased and was personally overseeing the situation now. He could sense the Collective no longer strived for assimilation here, but rather, sheer destruction of Kim'Taur's cube. As if the Borg were mimicking Picard's plan, drones began materializing behind both Kim'Taur and the captain, both groups converging towards the console Picard was working on.

"Q! I need the names of his children! Quickly!"

"I told you, I don't know!" Q's frustration rapidly transitioned into a near-gloating tone as an idea came to him, "But we can find out."

With a snap of his fingers, Q and Picard disappeared, leaving Kim'Taur alone with the Borg—and his hallucinations.

--

Lieutenant Commander Jason Kardaz uneasily sat in the _Enterprise_'s captain's chair as nervous beads of sweat dampened his body and made his brown spots on his head and neck glisten in the lighting of the bridge. Not in his centuries of existence did he ever even dream of sitting in the command seat of Starfleet's iconic flagship, the _Enterprise_. Now that he finally had the opportunity, he just didn't know what to do with himself, he felt like he was breaking some sort of regulation by sitting there even though the captain left him in charge. Perhaps his sentiment was from the circumstances at which he was put in charge, it was like he was ordered to abandon Picard. In his jittery state, he attempted to create a new log entry in the captain's log but he hit the wrong button and the ship went back into Red Alert.

"Ah jeez, uh, what'd I hit," He panicky mumbled to himself as he pressed the same button again to cancel the change in status. When he looked up, everyone on the bridge was staring at him with confused expressions. His sweating intensified as he awkwardly crossed his leg and leaned on the armrest, attempting to convey his sincerity before he explained, "Just….Just a quick drill. Uh…Good-good work everyone, carry on."

Jason hadn't always been so anxious. The Kardaz symbiont within him was responsible for that. Host after host, the Kardaz symbiont always changed its hosts' otherwise confident personalities. Perhaps it was simply a bio-chemical imbalance, or perhaps that's simply who the Kardaz symbiont was. No one truly understood the mysterious interaction between the Trill and the symbiote ic worm inside them.

"Commander," Moor of Ops reported, "We're finally in range for long range communications with Starfleet and we're being hailed by the _Titan_."

"Th-the _Titan_?" Kardaz repeated, growing even more flustered. He took a deep breath, stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles in his uniform before he quietly ordered, "On…On screen, Moor."

The viewscreen switched to a static-cluttered image of Captain William T. Riker. "Uh, can, can you clean it up?" Kardaz asked.

"The signal will improve shortly," Moor assured him.

Turning back to the viewscreen whose image had already cleared up considerably, Kardaz said, "Ah, hello Captain. What-what can we do for you?"

"Commander," Riker blared through the static, "I'm glad we got through to you finally. We've been trying to hail you for quite some time now."

"Ah, yes, yes Sir, we-we were out of comm range."

"Can you pipe me through to Captain Picard? I need to speak with him immediately."

"Oh I-I-I-I'm sorry but the captain isn't on board, Sir."

"Not on board?" Riker's image had now cleared up for the most part and he seemed even more intimidating than ever now, "Then where is he?"

"Captain Picard, he ah, well, he, Sir, he took a shuttlecraft and-and he wanted to try to stop Kim—uh I mean, he-he just took a shuttlecraft."

Riker looked furious but calmly replied, "It's okay, I know about your mission and Kim'Taur. Don't tell me he went to stop Kim'Taur all by himself."

"Oh no Sir," Kardaz explained as his uniform suddenly felt itchy under the scrutiny of Captain Riker, "Our first officer went with him."

"Commander," Riker sighed, "After this is all said and done, you'll need to have a word with your chief of security and refresh his memory on the hazards of allowing the captain to go on an away mission without a full security escort."

Kardaz could feel his face blush at his clear lapse of judgment earlier. Riker was right, he should have had security go with the captain after all. With bashful eyes, he nodded at Riker's suggestion.

"What's your status?" Riker asked.

"Kim'Taur has turned rogue and-and assimilated a Borg cube. We've-we've taken light hull damage after en-engaging Kim'Taur's ship and from a cloaked minefield in the Kalanna system. We're, ah, currently en route to-to Outpost 53."

Riker nodded expectantly and said, "I'm countering whatever orders Captain Picard gave you. You are now ordered to plot a course for the coordinates we're sending now at maximum warp. You can rendezvous with us there and we'll stop Kim'Taur together. It may be a while before the rest of the fleet can arrive so we'll be on our own."

"Coordinates received, Commander," Moor squawked, "Transferring to Helm."

"We should arrive in four hours as long as our engines hold out," Riker declared, "We're pushing the envelope as it is. Godspeed, _Enterprise_. Riker out."

"Course laid in, Sir," the helm officer stated as the transmission was closed.

With a calming breath, Kardaz loosened up somewhat and plopped back into the command chair relived that the encounter with Riker was now over. "En-Engage."

--

Picard blinked blankly as he shrugged off the disorientation from Q's method of transportation. The Borg corridor he had been standing in was replaced by a blistery cold and snowy environment, not much different than Earth's Antarctica. Through the gusting winds that kicked up freshly-fallen snow, the captain and Q gazed at two beings, an adult and a child.

"Can they see or hear us?" Picard asked Q as he realized he wasn't as cold as what he would expect to be.

"Not at all," Q replied and led the way closer to the two beings. They seemed to be wrestling in the snow as though it was a warm sunny day on a sandy beach. After the adult threw the child down in a way that seemed unnecessary and much too violently, Picard was about to step forward and instinctively intervene. He stopped when the child whined,

"I almost had you!"

The adult helped the child up and said, "When you join the Imperial Marines and go to war, _almost_ will get you killed." Though initially the captain didn't recognize him without the Borg implants, his voice was undeniably that of Kim'Taur's. The soldier patiently added, "Again. This time, win or do not. There is no almost."

"Yes Father."

Kim'Taur stepped a few meters back before he cracked his neck in anticipation and grunted, "_Pagja_!" When the boy jumped into a fighting stance, Kim'Taur roared, "_Rotii_!"

With that command, the boy charged Kim'Taur and unleashed a flurry of kicks and punches. It was obvious Kim'Taur was greatly holding back as he was content with blocking each attempted attack. Suddenly, Kim'Taur grabbed an incoming foot and hoisted the boy upside down, allowing him to dangle well out of arm's reach. Kim'Taur threw the boy up and away; he landed face-first into a snow bank dousing his blue skin with white snow.

"No fair!" The boy grunted and wiped his face off with frustration after crawling out.

"War is always unfair," Kim'Taur countered, "Deal with it."

The boy attempted to stand but collapsed, clenching his leg. He cried, "Ahh! Father, I think I hurt my ankle!"

With concern, Kim'Taur trudged through the snow and leaned over the boy to inspect his injury. Suddenly, the boy stopped crying and delivered a surprisingly powerful punch to Kim'Taur's throat, causing him to gag as he fell backwards. The boy jumped on top of Kim'Taur and started whaling away at the still gagging adult. Quickly, Kim'Taur pulled his legs in and pushed with all his might to kick the boy off him. The small Breen child flew back several meters before Kim'Taur stopped gagging and instead began laughing while he remained on his back in the snow.

"You learn fast, my boy," Kim'Taur replied between laughter as the boy stood at his feet feeling quite proud of himself.

He helped his father up and said, "I learn from the best, Father."

"Renny!" A third voice chimed in the distance, "Renny!"

Kim'Taur and the boy both looked in the direction of the plea for help before they both started running with anticipation.

"Is the baby coming?" The boy excitedly asked.

"I don't know but this one is indeed late for battle, I expect he will come soon enough."

Q grabbed Picard's shoulder and they hovered over the snow following the two blue-skinned beings.

"It's a _he_!?" The boy repeated as they approached a small compound.

"Again, I do not know, little one, I will be happy with either," Kim'Taur explained in glee, "Another boy to serve our emperor or a girl to give birth to more soldiers! Haha! Glory upon us!"

They filed inside the snow-covered house that had a small fire snapping and crackling the wood that burned in its flame. Beside the Breen female, who was rather beautiful Picard noted, was a large egg that was partially shattered. Further inspection yielded that the female was actually holding something in her arms.

"Renny, Di'Ta," she happily said and looked into her arms, "Meet Po'Kya'Larp, your daughter and sister."

"Po'Kya'Larp?" Kim'Taur gasped in awe, "After my mother? Karta, you honor me."

"Di'Ta, Po'Kya'Larp," Picard repeated, committing their names to memory.

Before Kim'Taur could even hold his newborn daughter, there were shouts outside the house. Instinctively, Kim'Taur grabbed what appeared to be a ceremonial sword and tried to listen closer to the people that had appeared from thin air outside. He told Di'Ta to take his mother and sister to the backroom and to protect them at all costs. The door exploded and someone dropped what Picard recognized as a stun grenade into the room at Kim'Taur's feet. Kim'Taur kicked it away but he was a moment too late reacting. The grenade exploded with its entire blast splashing the room in a bright light as the captain could barely make out several figures that entered the house at the peak of the brightness.

Kim'Taur saw them as well and though heavily disoriented, managed to charge the first intruder with sword in hand. He didn't get far though. He was quickly gunned down by a barrage of orange phaser fire. Once the light finally faded, Kim'Taur had collapsed and Di'Ta came running out from the back room screaming for his father. Mistaking the boy for a threat, the away team shot the boy several times.

Picard stepped forward and watched the boy fall to the ground with great concern. Even phasers set to stun would kill someone so small as Di'Ta with multiple blasts. What these people did was both unacceptable and appalling. Worse, he realized they were Starfleet officers.

"Oh God," a young Lieutenant pushed his way to the front of the security detail and towards the boy. After scanning for a pulse but failing to find one, he immediately slapped his combadge and uttered, "Raymond to _Yorktown,_ medical emergency! Two to beam directly to Sickbay!"

They dematerialized leaving the other officers with Kim'Taur. They bound him in restraints ashamed of their actions before they too transported away. The female stumbled into the room with her daughter clenched in her arms before falling to her knees in horrified silence when she realized two of her loves, her husband and her son, were now gone. The door was left open, the icy wind blew away her rampart tears as it howled almost sympathetically through the doorway.

Picard looked to his feet with the kind of guilt only a Starfleet captain could bear as the females crying only intensified. This away mission was an embarrassment to the Federation, plain and simple. It was poorly planned, it lacked experienced officers, it was executed with extremely poor timing and worse yet, innocents, a child no less, got hurt perhaps even lost his life. He promised himself that he would look into the entire matter involving Commander Kim'Taur's 'induction' into Starfleet, or at the very least, determine if the boy had survived and to send his condolences to Renny Kim'Taur's wife in either case.

Turning back to Q whom stood erect with his arms snidely crossed in front of him, Picard uttered, "Take me back to the cube, Q, I have what I needed."

They had just reappeared behind the same console Picard was working on aboard the cube when the captain quickly surveyed the environment. Despite the few moments they were away, the number of drones seemed to have increased exponentially since. However, some of the drones were from Kim'Taur's collective. It was true, _the enemy of my enemy is my friend_. Kim'Taur's drones were keeping the Borg largely at bay and vice versa, allowing him to work uninterrupted. He was about to enter the children's names when a particularly large Klingon drone appeared behind him and attempted to bat Picard away.

The captain was able to duck just before the mechanical arm could hit him. With the momentum of the swing still propelling the drone's arm backwards, Picard thrusted forward to knock the drone away. Though the Klingon drone wasn't knocked off his feet as originally planned, the push did force the drone to step back a few steps allowing Picard enough time to fire his hand phaser. Sparks erupted on the Klingon's chest plate and he collapsed as the gadgets on his mechanical arm stopped moving. Picard estimated he would have three or four shots before the Borg adapted. He hurriedly stood up and worked on the console once more.

He had entered the first child's name in the authentication code when a second drone appeared. This time, she caught the captain by surprise and easily pushed him away like a rag doll, immediately injecting nanoprobes into the computing hub. With another well placed shot from a sitting position, the captain brought the drone down, becoming somewhat agitated with the Borg. If he could only communicate with them that their goals were the same, things would be much easier. At least Kim'Taur and his collective were leaving him alone as they continued to focus on the Borg. As the captain got up, he passed Q and mumbled, "It would be splendid if you would cover me, Q."

"_Moi_?" Q said in surprise, "I'm above this frivolous hand-to-hand warfare, Picard, why I might as well jab them with long, pointy sticks, that's how ridiculous the idea is. Besides, you're doing just fine by yourself." He stepped to the side, narrowly avoiding a drone that had been tossed his way by a mighty throw from Kim'Taur. The renegade was also busy slicing and hacking away at the drones that seemed to swarm this area of the ship, still ignoring Q and the captain.

Picard said nothing at Q's protest and continued working on the console. The nanoprobes that the last drone injected had reset the system, forcing the captain to start entirely over again. After pushing away a third Borg drone, Picard set his phaser to its widest setting and fired into the wall of the Borg behind him that were steadily pushing Kim'Taur's drones back towards the console. The wide beam easily filled the corridor but only the first five drones fell victim to the blast, the others adapting as expected. Still, he bought himself precious seconds and tried to work all the more faster. He once more broke the first layer of encryption and again entered the first child's name into the system. His efforts became increasingly frustrating as he attempted different permutations of the second child's name. He simply could not determine the correct spelling.

Captain Picard thought he had finally gotten it when a hand forcefully grabbed his tunic. He was able to see that it was Kim'Taur's just before the legendary officer was thrown several meters backwards, nearly landing on a nearby drone. Kim'Taur turned his back to Picard as he focused on the console, attempting to secure the computer.

Picard gingerly pulled himself to his knees and reset his phaser to a random modulation. Picking his shot carefully, he fired at the wrist implant Kim'Taur seemed to rely on. A green shield appeared and absorbed the brunt of the blast. His luck with the random modulations was bound to run out eventually. With a committed sigh, Picard grudgingly stood back up and charged the renegade. He grabbed a fistful of cables from Kim'Taur's neckline and hastily pulled them out, hoping one would be enough to stop the drone. Kim'Taur grunted and leaned over the console in great discomfort before he caught a second wind and elbowed Picard away.

When the renegade returned his attention back to the hub in front of him, his face was met with a cloud of fire. Q had decided to join the fight, in a matter of speaking. He appeared to be an ancient circus act that breathed fire, fully complete with the proper attire of the era. Though Kim'Taur's head was still on fire, Kim'Taur mindlessly ejected his wrist phaser and returned fire at the omnipotent being. The shots passed harmlessly through, of course, but Q was nevertheless shocked when he whined, "You shot me! Even Sisko didn't shoot me!"

Kim'Taur batted the fire out and started to focus on the console once more before Picard again lunged for Kim'Taur. It was an act of total desperation but it was enough. With Picard's momentum, Kim'Taur was propelled towards the Borg whom were now closer than ever to the console. Kim'Taur was now engrossed with fending off the rival drones, much to Picard's relief. It gave him the time to again attempt to break Kim'Taur's codes. He was about to enter another permutation of the child's name, feeling more and more confident his efforts would eventually pay off, when he began tingling as a blue shimmer encased him.

"No! Not now!" Picard bellowed into the blue beam just before he was transported off the Borg vessel. He felt that he was so close to ending it all once and forever, so _utterly_ close. He rematerialized on the bridge of what appeared to be one of the new Luna-class starships; it was bathed in the red battle lighting that flashed above various consoles around the bridge.

"Welcome aboard the _Titan_, Captain," though frustrated with the timing, Picard was still grateful for hearing that voice. It was Captain William T. Riker, the real one this time. Sparing no time for pleasantries, he boomed, "Commander, synchronize firing solutions with the _Enterprise_. Ensign execute Riker Gamma-Four."

"Yes Sir!" The helm officer said while the Tactical officer silently concentrated on his readouts. Feeling somewhat awkward not to be in command for a change, Picard uneasily sat down next to Riker in what would have been the position for the second officer. He couldn't ask to be transported back to the cube now nor back to his own ship, not while the two mighty starships were engaged in battle. The viewscreen erupted with orange streaks from the _Enterprise_'s phasers with the _Titan_ matching targets, maximizing damage to Kim'Taur's cube. Almost instantly, the cube came to life and powered up its weapons, returning fire. It also began pulling away from the tactical cube as it attempted to tractor one of the starships to optimize use of the cube's numerous cutting beams. Gravimetric torpedoes were launched and nearly struck the _Titan_.

"Careful, those things almost got one of our starboard nacelles," Riker replied as a result. Despite his own current awkwardness, Picard was still happy to see his former first officer in command instilling reassurance and confidence in the crew he commanded; he expected no less, of course. He then saw the _Enterprise_ take a direct hit near her deflector array that turned his stomach.

"Status of the _Enterprise_?" Picard asked, weary of over stepping his authority on Riker's ship. The Vulcan at Tactical Picard recognized as Commander Tuvok flatly replied,

"Her shields are down, warp drive is offline, hull breeches on Decks 18 and 19, force fields are in place, Captain."

Picard and Riker exchanged worried looks before Riker nodded and boomed, "Signal them Captain Picard is safely with us and that they can disengage for some quick repairs. Give her covering fire."

"Aye Captain," the ops officer replied and transmitted the message as the viewscreen lit up with additional phaser fire from the _Titan_. As the _Enterprise_ soared past the ship to safety, the _Titan_ was rocked by a volley of gravimetric torpedoes.

"Don't worry, Sir," Riker leaned towards Picard, "We'll get you back over there sooner or later."

"Mm, yes, I should hope so, Captain," Picard replied as his eyes never left the viewscreen.

"Shields at 63% Captain," Tuvok calmly replied as the bombardment ended.

_Oh to be Vulcan during times like these_, Picard thought. Granted he too looked calm and collected like the emotionless, pointy-eared officer, but unlike him, the thrill of combat gripped the captain's innards. Interrupting his thoughts, he suddenly realized he had stopped perceiving the Borg Collective and feared Kim'Taur had finally assimilated the tactical cube. His suspicions were confirmed with the next report from Ops.

"Captain! The tactical cube is joining the fight…They're…They're plotting an intercept course with _us_!"

Riker scratched at his beard as he sat rigidly in the command seat, contemplating strategies.

"Shields at 50%," Tuvok reported after another blast from Kim'Taur's ship.

"Helm," Riker decisively ordered, "Plot a course for that small star we passed coming here, maximum warp."

"Sir, that'll leave the _Enterprise_ unprotected."

Riker flashed an apologetic look to Picard before he replied, "I'm willing to bet we're the priority target at the moment. Keep firing photon torpedoes in our wake; let's make sure they _stay_ interested in us."

Failing to identify what his former first officer was plotting, Picard quietly asked, "What do you have in mind, Captain?"

"Well Sir," Riker said out of habit, "A wild goose chase. The more time Kim'Taur's chasing us, the more time the fleet has to get here."

"You know of Kim'Taur?" Picard asked with wonder, "I thought you wouldn't remember."

"Q can be rather unforgettable, Captain" Riker mumbled as the small star grew larger on the viewscreen. Speaking to his crew, he asked, "Are the cubes still pursuing us?"

"Affirmative Captain, and gaining fast!" Commander Vale shouted as she checked her readouts at the first officer's station.

The ship trembled again as they dropped out of warp. The Ops officer reported, "They've fired some sort of warp dispersion weapon. We can no longer maintain a warp field."

The officer barley finished his sentence when the _Titan_ now bore the full brunt of _two_ Borg cubes and their combined barrage. Shields clearly went down in the midst of the bombardment as bulkheads collapsed and consoles erupted throughout the bridge.

Picard began tending to the wounded as Riker slapped his combadge, "Riker to Engineering!"

Presumably his Chief Engineer responded over a flurry of alarms in his department, "_We've got a coolant leak down here Captain!"_

"Can you rig up an explosion in the next few minutes?" Riker asked as Helm moved the ship, managing to avoid another volley of Borg torpedoes somehow.

"_How big of a boom we talkin', Captain!?_" The engineer was heard shouting commands to his team in the distance, no doubt attempting to stop an _internal_ explosion.

"A really big one?" Riker grimaced as the cubes fired again onto the ship, nearly knocking him out of his seat. He truly didn't know how much more abuse his ship could take.

"_I'll see what I can do! Ra-Havreii out!"_

"You're getting quite the reputation of blowing things up, Captain," Picard coyly replied as he assumed an auxiliary position near tactical.

"What can I say, I do like fireworks!" Riker proudly declared over the rumbles of lingering explosions within the ship.

With another violent slam from the cubes, damage reports were coming in indicating hull breaches on nearly every deck above 12. Suddenly, the standard cube blew up into millions of pieces of debris. The bridge of the _Titan_ watched with awe at the spectacle as the other cube appeared to power down simultaneously.

Riker slapped his combadge and proudly congratulated his engineer, "Riker to Ra- Havreii, excellent work!"

"_I wish I could take the credit for this one, Captain, but it wasn't me. I was still prepping_!"

Just as the confusion began to settle in, there was a flash of white on the bridge and then Q appeared who seemed to be rather out of breath. He collapsed to his knees, panting uncontrollably. Between gasps of air, Q uttered, "I…Did it…That…That was…Rather Strenuous!"

"_You_ destroyed the cube?" Picard stepped forward as his brow furrowed with shock, "How?"

"The…Self…" Q managed to say before he gave up and instead concentrated on his catching his breath.

"The self-destruct?" Picard finished for him and when Q nodded, continued in disbelief with, "You entered the last child's name?"

Q dragged himself to his feet and huffed, "Yes. You had the…The right sequence…I had…I had to press a button…To submit the code…Then boom…Ship destroyed. Whew…Most work I've done all eternity."

"You pressed a button?" Riker asked as he glanced behind him to the tattered Picard whom bore the appearance of having gone through hell and back. With one of his notorious poker smirks, Riker tried to be as sincere as possible while he said, "Congratulations, Q."

"Ugh," Q uttered and casually dismissed the compliment, "I need to spend some time in the nearest galactic Jacuzzi." The omnipotent entity snapped his fingers and disappeared, much to Riker and Picard's delight.

"Status of the tactical cube, Tuvok?" Vale asked, her female voice bringing a certain calming effect after a very near-death experience for Picard and the _Titan_'s crew.

Tuvok pressed a few buttons at his station and reported, "The additional layer of armor is blocking the majority of our scans, however, we can detect zero movement in approximately 38.6% of the ship where there are holes in the armor. Additionally, our limited scans indicate the cube's weapons have powered down and it is now rotating along its Z-Axis at 3.2 meters per hour—its engines appear to be inoperable; it is a drift, Captain."

Riker stood up and straightened his tunic as he gazed at the helpless tactical cube, respecting it as though it was a sleeping lion. It along with the other cube had nearly destroyed the _Titan_ and would have cost Riker everything, including his own life. He noticed the atmosphere became eerily quiet on the bridge as both the ship's systems and her crew's nerves stabilized. After a sharp breath, Riker firmly ordered,

"Look on and fire at will. Let's end this."

Past engagements with the Borg revealed that if the drones became disrupted or separated from the Collective, their ships ceased to regenerate and thus could be destroyed with far less firepower. After the demise of Kim'Taur when the first cube was destroyed, his collective thankfully functioned the same way forcing the tactical cube to power down.

Several moments passed before Riker turned to his tactical officer, wondering why the weapons hadn't fired yet, "Well?"

Tuvok looked up from his console and evenly explained, "Curious, Captain, the weapons are no longer responding."

"They were working a few minutes ago!" Vale boomed with disbelief as Riker and Picard exchanged surprised looks.

"Yes," the Vulcan officer replied as he further worked on his console, "However they are not now. I have no explanation at this time."

Riker slapped his combadge and said, "Riker to Engineering." There was a heavy thud in Engineering, prompting Riker to add, "Is everything alright down there? Ra-Havreii?"

"Captain," Tuvok suddenly stated, "I have detected an unauthorized transporter event that took place shortly before the unarmored cube was destroyed. The transporter signature had been concealed in a feedback loop generated by the explosion that had originally eluded our sensors."

"Damn, I knew that was too easy," Riker thought aloud before ordering, "Intruder Alert! Seal off Engineering!" He noticed Picard was already moving towards the turbolift with a determined stride and knew better than attempt to stop him now. Riker sighed and wearingly added, "Vale, Tuvok, go with him. Coordinate with security, I want Kim'Taur stopped."

They both nodded and followed Picard into the turbolift. If anyone could stop Kim'Taur, Riker decided, those three officers could.

"Captain!" Mister Najem whom had assumed Ops during the engagement reported, "The tactical cube is powering up! Whoa and our warp field has just been reintegrated, Captain!"

"Signal the _Enterprise_, we're making a run for it!" Riker cried out and sat back down. Now that Kim'Taur was on his ship, there was really no need to attempt to stop the remaining cube and he knew the best thing he could now do was to close the distance for help to arrive. "Plot a course to Federation space at whatever speed the _Enterprise_ can keep up at. Engage the faster the better, Ensign."

The _Enterprise _had promptly returned to the _Titan_ and assumed a position off one of the Luna-class's port nacelle. Immediately, the two starships jumped to warp with the tactical cube in hot pursuit. The three ships were significantly damaged, with the _Enterprise_ the most battered of the trio. The combined engagements had claimed nearly a hundred lives on the flagship of the Federation, twenty of which were lost to a particularly violent explosion near the warp core. What remained of the engineering staff were scrambling to simply keep the ship together in one piece. Unlike the _Enterprise_, the tactical cube was already regenerating its outer hull with it's connection to Kim'Taur reestablished and was slowly increasing its warp efficiency, enabling it to begin to close the gap between it and the Federation vessels. Everything was happening far too quickly for Riker's comfort.

Najem's hands slid down his console as he sat deeper into his chair. "Captain," he quietly reported, "A transwarp conduit is opening!"


End file.
